The Tale of Marcus Davenport
by SlothKeeper
Summary: After being left for dead by his Dad, Marcus suddenly finds himself living with the Davenports. He's a reluctant house guest and he just love being annoying. But how long will it take before the broken boy finally lets in his new family? Or will the now powerless boy continue his downward spiral into self destruction?
1. Marcus's Jam

Sloth: Hello world! I decided to do something different and write my first Lab Rats story. I've read a few and though there were a few good ones, I found the lack of Marcus angst. I can't help it, I like villain angst. And Marcus seems like the perfect character for some angst. And with a little family thrown in for it. I mean, why not. I like the family dynamic in Lab Rats.

This being my first Lab Rats story, I'm going to have to admit, I'm not sure if there is going to be any major plot. I'm thinking I'm just going to have a bunch of semi-connected one-shots with Marcus angst while living with the Davenports. If there does turn out to be a plot, well then wo-who!

Disclaimer: I don't own Lab Rats.

Summery: After being left for dead by his father, Marcus find himself now living with the Davenports. He's a reluctant house guest who finds enjoyment with being annoying, but exactly how long will it take before the broken boy opens up to his new family?

* * *

**Marcus's Jam**

It all happened about a month ago when Leo went to spy on Marcus. After discovering the eyebrow villain's secret lab, he found a set of schematics. They were all about a bionic chip that was designed to take over a person's mind and alter their entire being. The chip was still in an in-progress stage and the test subject turned out to be some kid adopted from Seaford Orphanage.

After almost being crushed and decimated by Marcus's vacuum cleaner of death, Leo had made out with the schematics without Marcus knowing anything about it.

He showed Big D the schematics, telling him where he found it and who he thought the test subject was. Now, he held no favoritism towards Marcus and he still thought the guy was the creepiest person in the known universe (two if you counted the time he spent in the Alternate Universe where he was bionic), but even Leo didn't think anyone should be controlled against their will. And as much as it pained him, and it pained him a lot, to admit it, but they needed to help Marcus.

At first, Donald didn't believe that Marcus could be evil, much less bionic. However, he couldn't deny the fact that someone was making bionic chips that gave them complete and utter control of a person's body. The thought of turning people until robotic slaves was just disturbing. In his opinion it was different from what he did because he still gave Adam, Bree, and Chase free will and he only just gave them bionic superpowers. He didn't turn them into mind slaves, which was what he suspected was the purpose of this new chip dubbed The Evil Chip.

It took some time, but he managed to create a device designed to block out the Evil Chip's signals. It wasn't perfect, but it would do.

It had finally come. The Marcus and his dad were finally initiating plan "Destroy Davenport". They had come in ready to capture Adam, Bree, and Chase. While the evil mastermind turned out to be a former employee of Davenport Industries who wanted to use the Bionic Chips for a purpose other than saving the world. With help from his pet project, A.K.A. Marcus, they invaded the Davenport home, surprising them with an attack.

Marcus took on Adam, Bree, and Chase, using his array of bionics to take them out while his "Dad" went to confront Davenport.

"Marcus?" The bionic teen looked up from where he had his foot on Chase's back. His right brow was raised up in its usual evil brow lift. Bree was standing there, confusion written on her face.

"Yes?"

"Why are you doing this? I thought you were our friend."

Marcus chuckled, a smirk still plastered on his face. "Friends? Who needs friends when you've got all the power in the world?"

"Leo was right," Chase grunted. "You are evil."

"And it's the best feeling ever," Marcus smiled.

"Well how does this feel?" Adam fired a plasma grenade at Marcus. The raven haired boy just picked up Chase and used the younger boy to take the hit. Chase was thrown out of Marcus's grip and flew through the air, landing in a heap like a limp rag doll.

"Chase!"

Using their moment of distraction against them, Marcus held up his hand and fired a plasma grenade. The energy ball fired through the air and corkscrewed into Adam, sending the taller male flying through the window.

Bree sped towards Marcus and engaged him in hand-to-hand combat. However, Marcus quickly matched her speed, blocking each of her attacks. They grappled briefly before Marcus kicked Bree's foot from under her. As she fell, he grabbed her by the back of her hair and tossed her aside.

"You guys can't beat me. I can record and replicate all your bionics. I'm unstoppable!" he boasted smugly. He smirked as he made his way towards Chase and Bree. "And now you're coming with me."

"No they're not!"

From out of nowhere, Marcus felt a small weight on his back and thin, branch-like arms wrapping around his neck. The sudden momentum and weight caused Marcus to trip and fall. He stumbled back up, Leo kicking wildly in an attempt to throw the bionic villain off his game.

"Get off me, you little freak!"

"No!"

"Get off!"

"Never!"

"I said get off, you son of a-"

ZAP!

Marcus's entire body suddenly felt like it had been lit on fire. Every nerve ending from the back of his neck to the tips of his fingers were lighting up as if he had just stuck a fork into an outlet, which he had actually done when he was five. Not exactly an experience he wanted to relive. He involuntarily fired a heat-vision blast as his bionics started to glitch. He thrashed around violently, managing to throw Leo off of him and into the heap that was Chase and Bree.

There was a horrible burning. He wanted it to stop. He needed it to stop. The pain. It just kept growing. He started to claw at the back of his neck where his chip was implanted.

"Argh! Make it stop!" he demanded, his entire system going wild. He couldn't stop the glitches. He cried out as plasma grenades burned their way through his fingers. He fell to the floor as his left foot speed up and tossed him into the air. The fall knocked the air out of him, making him gasp.

His body finally stopped thrashing, electrical pulses causing a twitch here and there.

"W-what did you do to me?" He asked as Leo, Bree, and Chase cautiously took a step to the prone teen.

"Big D used the schematics I found in your secret lair to make a sonic disruptor to shut down your bionics." Leo answered smugly. Marcus glared, green laser beams firing out of his eyes. They harmlessly passed by, but the scared the living daylights out of Leo, which satisfied Marcus, despite his eyes burning horribly from the attack. He whimpered as he covered his eyes.

"Now would be a good time to take him to Big D before the effects wear off."

….

…

..

Marcus was seething. He couldn't believe that he got beaten by a scrawny little shrimp who needed a booster seat just to sit in a desk at school. Now he was being carted down to their secret lap, most likely to have his chip removed and return to the pathetic, sniveling goodie-two-shoes that he had been before. He'll never admit it, not even under torture, that he had once been a sweet guy. Orphaned, he had been adopted by Daniel Henderson, a scientist who had once been employed at Davenport industries.

Sure, he had only been adopted so that he could be a human guinea pig, but Daniel Henderson was still a good father. They had pizza nights, worked on killer robots together, had movie nights, ect ect. But he was confident that his dad would get them out of this, fix his chip, and then they'll have their revenge.

The elevator opened with a hiss and Marcus was escorted out of it. Before the teens, Davenport was facing off against Henderson, each one wielding laser blasters. They stopped when the bionic teens stood in the entrance.

"Uh…Hey, Dad." Marcus greeted sheepishly. Henderson looked between Davenport and Marcus.

"Marcus," the rogue scientist sneered, causing Marcus to flinch. That sneered never led to anything good.

"It's over Danny. You've got nowhere else to go," Davenport started calmly, but sternly. "Just give up and turn yourself in. I can convince the cops to go light on you and Marcus."

"Oh Donny," Henderson smiled. "Do you really think I'm just going to let myself go to jail?"

"Jail?" Marcus involuntarily gasped. "I don't want to go to jail. Do you know what they do to kids like me?"

"Don't worry, Marcus," Henderson smirked. "You won't be going to jail. See Davenport, I'm always one step ahead of you. I always have a back-up plan."

Digging into his pocket, Henderson pulled out a small, silver object. It was no bigger than a pen. In fact, if it weren't for the big honking red button at the top, it would have easily been confused for a pen. Henderson smiled devilishly, his eyes wild with excitement.

"What's he going to do with that?" Leo asked. "Draw mustaches on our faces until we give up?"

"Oh no, please Mr. Supervillain," Adam mocked, "please don't write on my face."

"No, not my face," Chase joined. Marcus glared at them.

"Shut up!" he snapped, struggling against the handcuffs and Adam. "Dad, show them you mean business."

"Danny, I know you. What is that?"

"This? This Donny, is a trigger for a neutron bomb," Henderson smirked.

"A bomb? But where would you…" seeing the look in Henderson's eyes as he looked over at the teens, Davenport quickly put things together. He felt his heart sink in realization and horror at such a disgusting act. "Kids! Get away from Marcus!"

There was a moment where no one did anything, but it soon passed as they registered the implications. Even Marcus caught the threat, his eyes widening in disbelief. But he had no time to dwell on it before pain erupted through his body.

A white hot fire ripped through his entire body. He took back what he said about Leo's little chip disruptor. This was much, much more worse. He dropped to his knees, tears blinking through his eyes as he saw his Dad making a run for it.

"Dad!" he cried.

"Sorry, Marcus, but I've got to look out for number one!"

And with that, he was gone. Just gone. He left, leaving Marcus behind to blow up and take out his enemies. He was willing to end a child's life just for a personal vendetta. Marcus couldn't help the bitter laugh that escaped his throat. He grew up unwanted, left on a porch of a church in Seaford. Now he was going to die, alone, unwanted.

Well, if he was going to die, he wasn't going to do it for someone else's plan.

Pain racked his body and a plasma grenade ripped through his hand and destroyed one of the three tubes in the room. He could hear them all screaming. The bomb was screwing with his bionics. Well wasn't that a pleasant thought.

With shaking legs, he got up, making his way towards the door.

"Marcus!"

He turned to see Leo poking his head from behind a desk.

"What are you doing?"

"What do you care?" he asked as he stumbled towards the open door his dad had gone through. "I'm not going to die just to take out your pathetic family. If I'm going to die, I'm doing it on my own terms."

He fell inches from the door. His legs had given out on him. He cursed himself.

_So much for a big exit, _he thought as he laid there on the floor, neutron energy arching across his body. He could actually feel the excess energy burning his flesh. _Man this hurts, _was his last thought before he passed out.

….

"Kids, run!" Davenport ordered as he tried to usher them towards the elevator.

"But what about Marcus?" Leo asked.

"There's nothing we can do," Davenport replied. "He can blow at any second."

"But we just can't leave him!" Leo argued. "He might be a lying, scheming jerk, but even he doesn't deserve to just blow up."

"Leo's right," Bree joined in. "We just can't let him die."

"Uh, don't you remember he just tried to capture us, not three minutes ago," Chase countered.

"But it's wrong," Bree stated. "We're the good guys. We can't let him die. It just wouldn't be right."

"Yeah, I'm not all the smart, but even I know that's not right," Adam said with his hand raised as if he was in a classroom.

Davenport looked between the kids. Chase continued to show his displeasure, arguing that they didn't have time. Adam, Bree, and Leo wanted to do the right thing, despite the risks. Finally, before a full-blown argument could be broken out between them, he made his decision.

"Ok, ok. Here's what we'll do. Chase, you make a force field around Marcus. It won't prevent the blast, but it'll weaken it and cause less damage. While he's doing that, Bree, take this scanner and scan Marcus's chip. Leo, come with me a help me with these codes. Adam, help Chase in case things go wrong."

Without hesitation, they got to work. Chase formed a force field around the fall boy. With Adam's help, they were able to keep the force field from expanding as neutron blasts bounced around on the inside of the shield. Bree sped over to Marcus and did a quick scan before returning to Davenport. He used the readings and with Leo's help, wrote a code.

"If this works, it should shut down the bomb."

"Whatever you guys are doing, hurry," Chase grunted. "We can't…hold it…much longer."

"Just hold it a little longer guys," Davenport urged on. "We've almost got it."

The clock was ticking. The energy waves coming from Marcus were slamming violently against the force field. Chase was losing his concentration. The shield would flicker in and out now and then, letting out a stray energy blast. A stray blast slammed into Bree's tube, shattering it into nothing. Another slammed into the Leo's Mission Expert desk, ripping it from the floor and destroying the desktop.

"Can't…hold it…"

"Just a little longer!" Davenport urged as he quickly tapped the last bit of the code.

"Hey guys, I don't think he's supposed to be smoking like this," Adam noted innocently.

"Got it!" Davenport shouted triumphantly. He handed a strange, paper thin bracelet to Bree just as Chase and Adam were thrown backwards by a powerful shockwave. "Put it on him now! Go, Bree! Go!"

Without hesitation, Bree ran over to Marcus and slapped the cuff on him before racing back to her family.

"Take cover!"

Everyone dropped to the ground, using the desks as shield. An energy explosion ripped through the lab.

….

…

..

To Be Continued?


	2. Cough Syrup

Sloth: Well, I'd like to first thank everyone who took an interest in the story. I just love getting a mailbox full of stuff from Fanfiction. Especially when they are reviews. Reviews are my favorite. So I'd like to thank all the guests who reviewed, and I'd like to thank RIK, LBozzie, and BTRLover1122 for their signed reviews. I enjoyed getting the reviews and since I'm already 5 chapters in, and since Fourth of July was yesterday, I decided to, why not, toss in the second chapter.

Now something to note first, while writing, I had a hard time trying to figure out how to refer to Davenport. We know his name, but he's called so many different things. Donald, Donny, Mr. Davenport, Davenport, Big D. So I decided to refer to him by what the character would call him. The story is 3rd POV, but mostly from the perspective of the character the chapter is focused on. So, if the chapter is mostly about Marcus, then Mr. Davenport will be referred to as Davenport. It's its Leo's then it's Big D. If it's the Lab Rats, then it's Mr. Davenport. So you can tell who the chapter is focused on by his name. This also means the story won't just be about Marcus.

One final thing, I saw this done in another story and I thought I'd give it a try. So for everyone who reviews, that as an account, I'll give them a preview of the next chapter. I thought it would be interesting to try.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lab Rats.

* * *

**Cough Syrup  
**

Pain. There had been so much pain. Like someone just kept poking his exposed flesh with a hot fire poker. Not stabbing, just poking, digging lightly enough not to pierce flesh, but enough to hurt. He wanted it to go away. He escaped to the inner most recesses of his mind. He wanted to hide from the pain.

It wasn't until he felt something cool and wet touch his head did he began to stir. He blinked through the darkness, pushing the darkness away and bringing some light into his world. The first thing he noticed was the caramel colored walls. They were blank, so he couldn't guess where he was. But from the fact that there was some color meant that he wasn't in a hospital room. That was good.

As he sat up, a damn cloth fell off his forehead and onto his lap. He was a little taken back by it, but not too much. He managed to ignore the involuntary need to jump. He went back to looking around. He noticed that he wasn't in his normal clothes. His jeans and hoodie were replaced with silk pajamas. He was mildly surprised that he was in pajamas. Normally he slept in a capsule while wearing sweatpants. And who even changed him?

He tried to remember what happened before he awoke. There had been pain. Lots of it. He remembered seeing someone leave him. Who was it? Name flashed through his head. He remembered the person had been important to him. They had to be, otherwise, why else would it hurt so much seeing the person leave him behind.

"_Yes Dad, I remembered to record Funeral Mishaps"_

"_I'm so sorry. Don't worry, I'll fix everything."_

"_Ow! Dad, I'm sorry I-"_

He snapped out of his daze. Where did those memories come from? He rubbed his eyes. That's when he noticed the silver band on his wrist. That hadn't been there before. He reached for the bracelet, only to be forced back by an electrical shock.

"Ow! Son of a-"

"Oh! You're awake!"

He looked up to see a woman with short dark hair and hoop earrings. She was a very attractive woman, with a gentle smile and soft voice that held a lot of authority.

"You're Leo's mom," he suddenly said, memories flooding back to him as his mind registered. He felt something cold hit his stomach. He suddenly realized he must still be in Davenport's house. He didn't know whether to make a run for it or not. He decided to risk it. He made a run for it. However, rather than super speeding out of the room, he fell off the bed, hitting his head against the hard wood floor and dragging the blanket and pillow with him.

"Marcus! Are you ok?"

"Ow," he groaned. "Why couldn't I run?"

"Um…well. Here, why don't we get you back in bed and I'll get one of the others to explain things to you."

Tasha helped Marcus back into bed, his legs still shaky. He didn't understand why she was being so nice. He had invaded her house. The living room should be in shambles because of him. Why was she being nice to him when he tried to kill her son? It just didn't make sense.

She tucked him in before walking out of the room, leaving Marcus by himself. He didn't know what he was expecting. Were they going to come in, pots and pans ready to knock him into oblivion? Or were they going to drag him down to their secret lair and do horrible experiments on him? He visibly gulped at the idea. It scared him.

"Marcus?"

He jerked up, looking to see Davenport and his bionic teens at the door. Oh, and Leo. He gave them one of his patented Eyebrow-Glares-of-Doom looks. He might have been bed ridden and apparently lacking in the bionics department, but that doesn't mean he was going to look like a wuss in front of them.

"Well, I take it this is the part where you interrogate me?" he asked them with as much snark as he could muster. They all looked uneasy at each other. This made his right brow go higher up his hairline. Which was saying something considering his hair was usually gelled back.

"So…how are you feeling?" Leo asked as he tried to break the ice. Again, Marcus gave him a raised brow look. Was he actually serious or was this some strange, twisted way to get him to let his guard down so they could turn on him. After all, it was something he would have done.

"Seriously?"

"Well, you did blow up," Adam commented like it was nothing. This got his entire family to shout his name in unison. It was almost funny. Almost. Because when you were told you were blown up, you don't normally become amused.

"I did what?"

"Uh," Mr. Davenport started as he took lead and walked over to Marcus. "Marcus. What exactly do you last remember?"

He looked at the older man, curious as to what the man was getting at. "I remember a lot of pain, which wasn't really pleasant by the face." He turned a glare towards Leo at the comment. The image of Leo jumping on his back and tazing him with something was definitely seared into his brain. But he couldn't remember anything after that. He made a face as he tried to remember more.

He remembered being in a lab. A bright lab. Then there was a man. Someone important to him. Someone really, really important, because he recalled them leaving and the pain of that was much worse than the pain in his neck.

His eyes suddenly widened and he reached behind him for his neck. He could still feel the small bump on his neck where his chip was. But if his chip was still there, why couldn't he use his bionics. He looked up at Davenport, fixing a glare in the man's direction and wordlessly asking him the question.

"Um…well. You're probably wondering why you can't use your bionics. Chase, do you want to take this one?"

"Oh no, don't look at me," the youngest bionic teen said. "I voted for him blowing up."

"You know, if I could," Marcus glared, "I'd blast your head off with my laser vision."

"Well you can't," Chase countered smugly, "so ha!"

In response, Marcus chucked his pillow with as much accuracy and precision he could muster in his ill state. It was just enough, even without bionic enhancements, to nail Chase right in the face and send the other boy to the ground.

"Oh! Pillow fight!" Adam enthusiastically picked up the pillow and smacked Leo with it. The sight was enough to bring a smile to the bed-ridden teen.

"Well, I guess I'll take this one," Davenport said soberly and he watched Bree try to wrestle the pillow away from Adam before he could continue to use it as a weapon. "Look, Marcus. I'm going to be honest with you. What you did, we really can't forgive easily."

"So you're going to send me to jail?" he asked, his features twisting with an intense glare. It really shouldn't have some off as a surprise. He knew what happened to the bad guys. They get carted off to jail in handcuffs and had to wear eye-burning orange jumpsuits for the next ten-to-twenty. But did he really classify as bad? Ok, sure, he tried to capture Adam, Bree, and Chase…but he couldn't exactly remember for who or why. Did that make him bad? Some part of him registered that kidnapping, even if you were kidnapping bionic super-teens, was illegal and bad. Then he felt the urge to run for it again.

"I never said that," the billionaire interrupted his train of thought. Marcus managed to crush the hope in his eyes and looked up at Davenport with an unimpressed look.

"Oh really? So what are you going to do with me? Keep me under house arrest?"

"Well…it was Bree's idea."

Marcus actually looked indignant as Bree came to her own defense.

"No it wasn't. It was Leo's! I just agreed."

"Oh no, don't try to pin this on me," the youngest said. "I said we shouldn't leave him on his own. I did NOT say keep him in the house. It was my mom's idea."

"I heard that!" Tasha's voice carried from down the hall.

Marcus wasn't exactly sure how to feel. Part of him was glad that he wasn't going to go to jail. Sure, he was positive he'd be able to survive on his own if he still had his bionics and he didn't need to worry about getting carted off by the government. But he was scared what would happen to him now that he was normal. But he was both curious and concerned as to why they were keeping him here. Who in their right mind would keep the person who tried to destroy their family inside their own home? Were they insane or were they just that goodie-two-shoes?

"I still don't get it," he told them earnestly. "Why?"

"Well…" Davenport struggled, "to be perfectly honest…"

"Oh just spit it out already," Marcus said. It was tired with all this dodging and stepping on eggshells. He was fifteen. He could handle it.

"He's afraid you'll blow up," Adam blurted out.

"What's he talking about?"

"Well, Marcus…your bionic chip had a detonation feature in it," Davenport explained slowly.

"A detonation feature?" he repeated slowly, confusion invading his features. "You're kidding right?"

"I'm sorry, I'm not." The expression on Davenport's face told him was serious, which didn't make this any less painful. He couldn't exactly remember who gave him the chip, but he didn't understand why they would put in a detonation feature in it. What was the point?

"So whoever gave me the chip wanted to use me as a bomb?" he asked, his voice wavering just briefly.

"What do you mean who?" Chase asked. "Your d-"

"Marcus," Davenport quickly interrupted, "do you remember where you got your chip from?"

The raven haired boy frowned at the question. He tried to remember, but all he got was fog. He could see the shape of a man, but nothing more. It was like their entire feature was wiped from his mind.

"No. I just remember someone taking me from the orphanage and then getting the chip. I can't remember who or why."

"The explosion must have fried your memories. A failsafe just in case you managed to survive."

Marcus's head nearly snapped off his shoulders with how fast he looked up at Davenport. "What do you mean 'managed to survive'? What happened?"

Davenport sighed. "Look Marcus, I don't exactly know how to say this-"

"Then say something," he snapped. "Why aren't my bionics working? Who put a detonation in my chip? What happened?"

"We weren't exactly able to completely stop the explosion. We placed an inhibitor on you," the billionaire said as he gestured to Marcus's new bracelet, "to stop your chip from completely overloading a killing you. It's designed to block the chip's signals and prevent you from using your bionics. But more importantly it's preventing the detonation from completing."

"So what you're saying is, that as long as I'm wearing this, I can't use my powers or blow up."

"In a nutshell," Davenport nodded. "Look, it's only until I can find a way to shut off the detonation process. If the inhibitor were to come off, the detonation sequence would proceed from where it left off and you would…um…" He made a gesture with his hands that was supposed to look like an explosion. Instead it looked like his fingers were having a spaz attack and were trying to get away from Davenport. Either way, Marcus didn't need the imagery. He was smart enough to know what would happen.

"We're keeping you here so it'll be easier to find a way to shut it off."

Marcus looked down at the bracelet. He couldn't believe something so small and innocent looking object was keeping him alive. He felt the urge to remove the bracelet, to feel the power of his bionics course through him again. He didn't like this feeling of being powerless. But at the same time, he didn't want to blow up.

There was still one question on his mind though.

"Why?"

"I peg your pardon?"

"Why? I don't think I'm actually on your top 10 favorite things list, so why are you helping me?"

"Because it's the right thing to do," Davenport said simply. "Right guys?"

"Yeah," Adam smiled. "I mean, sure you tried to kidnap us and you were like, super evil and everything, but even that doesn't mean we're just going to leave you by yourself."

And that might have just been the smartest thing out of Adam's mouth. Marcus looked at the gathered teens and the billionaire. He still didn't get it. He didn't understand why they would willingly want to keep him around. Wouldn't it be better to have him in a warehouse, far, far away from the family? It would be easier to have him away from everyone instead of right there. Maybe it would be easier to keep an eye on him. After all, he would just need to take off the inhibitor and BOOM.

"So, until we find a way to stop the detonation," Davenport started again, "you'll be living with us."

"Again, not my idea," Chase piped up, earning him a glare from Marcus.

Before Marcus could launch another pillow at the annoying super-brain, Tasha came into the room.

"Well, if everyone's done crowding Marcus, dinner's ready," she told them. Adam's eyes brightened.

"Alright! Food!" he took off, with Bree, Chase, and Leo following close behind.

"Marcus, would you like to join us?" she asked kindly. Again, Marcus didn't understand why she was being nice. He had tried to kill her son on several occasions. What kind of mother would be nice to him? Was it because he looked so pathetic, lying on a bed like an invalid?

_They probably feel sorry for me, _he thought. _Great. It's a pity party. Just my luck, _he scowled.

"No. I'm fine. I think I'll just go back to sleep."

"Oh. Well ok," she nodded. "I'll bring something up in case you get hungry." With that, she turned and walked downstairs.

Davenport sighed and looked down at Marcus as the teen laid back down.

"Marcus, if there' anything-"

"Going to bed now," he interrupted, pulled the covered over his head as he turned away from Davenport.

"Alright. I guess I'll be leaving now."

"Please."

Marcus could hear heavy footsteps leaving the room. He was alone. He was tired. He was drifting off, the revelation that he could blow up taking its toll on him. He just wanted to go to bed and forget this happen.

"_Oh man!" _a computerized voice shouted from the screen by the door, jerking Marcus awake. _"Not another brat!"_

_..._

_..._

_.._

* * *

Sloth: So originally, I was going to name each chapter title after episode titles from the show. However, after listening to nothing but Glee and Disney songs all night, I decided to use song titles instead. So you can go find the song title and listen to the song while reading the chapter. Anyways, see you next time.


	3. Everybode Talks

Sloth: So, I'd like to once again thank everyone for their reviews! Especially BTRlover1122, amichele, and all the lovely guesties. I didn't expect such lively reviews. I will say, I had a mild plot going on and one of you guessed what I was going to do! I love it went you do that! So look forward to see what's going to happen. Remember I'm shooting for more family and angst, so just wait and see what I've got planned. Muahahaha. I mean. Yay?

Disclaimer: I don't own Lab Rats. I would make it too angsty and it wouldn't be on Disney DX, it would be on a channel where everyone can watch it.

* * *

**Everybody Talks**

The Davenports were gathered together for dinner. With their constant training, missions, and school work, the Lab Rats didn't get much time to just be with the family. Sometimes they would have a mission late at night, causing them to miss out on dinner and had to eat power pellets or microwaved pizza. On nights Tasha had to work late, they would order out. Mostly because the last time one of them tried to cook, Adam managed to burn the pot of hot water. So whenever they got the chance to do something as a family, they'd enjoyed it. Friday nights were the best, because Tasha didn't have to work and the world was safe, meaning no training or missions.

Tasha would make a hot meal from scratch. Hot buttermilk biscuits were the first on the table, the appetizer filling the air with their buttery scent. Then she'd make a garden salad with fresh greens and chopped tomatoes and balsamic vinaigrette. She would make sure to always put a bottle of ranch on the table because it was Chase's favorite, while keeping a small bowl of extra croutons because Adam would most like eat those instead of the salad. The main course would always be different. Tonight it was baked mac and cheese and oven roasted chicken.

When you were living the life of a superhero, it was easy to see why moments like these were so precious and why they loved feeling normal, even just for a night. Bree was enjoying these moments of normalcy the most as she talked with Tasha about Owen.

"And he didn't even notice my new haircut."

"Oh no he didn't."

"I know right? Then finally he's like 'oh, you got a haircut'. He felt so bad; he drew a painting of me."

"Aww. That's so romantic. Isn't that romantic, Donald?"

Donald looked up, his mouth still full with chicken and macaroni. "Oh yeah," he answered, mashed food dancing around his mouth for all to see. "Totally."

"Donald, don't talk with your mouth full," Tasha reprimanded, to which her husband just smiled sheepishly and swallowed his food. That's when he noticed Leo was just pushing his food around.

"Hey, Leo. Is something the matter?" he asked, concerned.

"Hmm? Oh nothing. Just thinking."

"Oh no," Chase stared in mock terror. "Quick! Everyone check your seats for explosives!"

"Ha-ha, very funny, Chase," Leo glared. "Did you get that one off the cereal box?"

"No," Chase countered. "I got it off the internet."

"Dude, that's not any better," Adam laughed through a mouthful of food, which caused Tasha to give Donald a look that said 'see what you did?'.

"So, Leo," Donald quickly asked, trying to hide from Tasha's gaze. "What are you thinking about?"

"Marcus," the boy answered sheepishly, knowing that it really wasn't a conversation everyone at the table wanted to hear. He already knew that Chase had issues with Marcus.

It was really ironic really. He had hated Marcus at first, distrust making up the entirety of their relationship. It probably came from the fear of losing his family. It didn't help that Marcus threatened to tell the government and have Adam, Bree, and Chase taken away. The dislike only grew from all of the attempts at his life by the psychopathic bionic teen. However, despite any ill will he once had towards the other teen, he still felt bad for Marcus. Nobody deserved to be used and discarded like Marcus.

He saw it in Marcus's eyes, the way the teen tried to crawl after his retreating dad. It was like watching lost puppy trying to chase after its master after being abandoned. No one deserved that. Not even Marcus.

"I just don't understand how someone could do that. I mean, I don't like Marcus as far as I can throw him, but even he didn't deserve to be used like that."

"Leo," Tasha started as she reached out to her son, placing a hand on his. "I know it's not fair. But sometimes, there are people who are just cruel. They do bad things because they can."

"You mean like Principal Perry?" Adam asked innocently.

"Ah…" Tasha paused, "kind of. Only some are much worse. Principal Perry's just uh…"

"A crazy cat lady?"

"A psychotic leprechaun?"

"A pit-bull in a pants suit?"

"All of the above," Tasha chuckled at her step-children's charitable discriptions.

"Look guys," Davenport joined in, his tone pulling them away from the present topic and back on track to serious matters. "Daniel Henderson was the kind of man who thought about money and power. When I first developed the bionic chips, he was my assistant. He wanted to use the chips for military purposes and sell them to the highest bidder. He even tried to convince me to sell the chips to people who wanted to use them to attack other countries."

They knew what Donald was trying to imply. It wouldn't be their first time discussing terrorist. The idea of international criminals getting their hands bionic powers was disturbing as it was. Marcus was able to overpower them because he didn't have a conscience. Whether it was because of his chip or his upbringing was unsure.

"After I fired him, Henderson must have copied some of my notes and designed his own chip and he used Marcus as a test subject. Knowing Henderson the way I do, he most likely put that detonation sequence in just in case Marcus turned on him or he didn't need Marcus anymore."

"That's horrible," Bree commented, suddenly losing her appetite. Granted it didn't make Adam lose his, and the older teen happily took her discarded dinner and shoveled it onto his plate. "Really, Adam?"

"What, if you're not going to eat it, someone should," he answered with a shrug before wolfing down her meal.

"While we're on the topic, I'd like to say," Donald started as he placed his fork down and turned to Leo. "I'm really proud of you."

"Me?"

"Him?"

"Yes," Donald laughed. "If Leo hadn't followed his instincts, he would have never found those schematics for Marcus's chip and we would have never found a way to fight him. You were also very brave in saving Marcus."

"And that makes me very proud of you too, Leo," Tasha smiled as she pulled her son into an embarrassing hug.

"I still don't get why he has to live with us," Chase frowned as he poked his salad to the point where the lettuce was turning into confetti.

"Chase," Donald started. "I know you don't trust Marcus anymore, but you got to look at it from our point of view. He has nowhere else to go. And we can't very well leave him with his bionics the way they are. The inhibitor might be blocking his chip, but it's not going to be like that forever."

"Yeah, Chase," Leo joined in. "Knowing Big D's invention, it's only a matter of time before something goes horribly wrong."

"Aren't most of those reasons because of you?" Chase asked with a glare. Leo stuck his tongue out at Chase and the other boy in avertedly found himself retaliating with the same child-like gesture.

"Alright you two, that's enough," Tasha scolded the two boys with a smiled just itching to form on her face. With his intelligence and maturity, it was hard to remember that Chase was only a few months older than Leo. She often forgot that Chase was the youngest and she never missed the favoritism her husband showed the boy. Growing up with her own siblings, she knew how that kind of favoritism could affect a child. Especially if the parent of said child was showing affection to someone younger and new. She made a note to talk with Chase about the issue.

"So does this mean Marcus will be living with us from now on?" Bree asked curiously.

"Well…" Donald looked at Tasha. She knew he was looking at her for an answer, and she loved him for including her in the matter.

"He can stay as long as he wants," she smiled. She knew it was her maternal instincts talking. She couldn't turn down a kid in need. Especially if she knew they were thrown out for no better reason than for being a distraction.

The kids all had mixed reactions. Chase frowned, still stabbing his salad until the confetti turned into a green veggie puree. Bree smiled solemnly, looking between her phone and the stairs. Adam cheered, clapping his hands excitedly at the idea of a new buddy to live with. Leo smiled, but couldn't help biting his lower lip afterwards.

"_No way! You can't let that little monster live here"_ Eddie said as he materialized on the HD screen above the dining room table. _"Do you know what he did? He broke my face!"_

"Eddie, you're a computer program," Chase explained. "You don't have a face."

"_Well I couldn't expect someone like you to notice a face of beauty like mine," _the AI snarked. _"But seriously, he punched out my computer screen in his room."_

"Wow, one hour here and Marcus managed to do what we've all wanted to do since Mr. Davenport installed Eddie," Bree mused.

"Go, Marcus," Adam cheered. "Hey Chase, maybe he can teach you to lighten up" he told his little brother, who looked like his eyes were about to fire off laser beams.

….

…

..

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Once again, please review, they make me update faster. And everyone who reviews with their account gets a preview of the next chapter. Until next time.


	4. Tik-Tok

Sloth: Hello again, everybody! thanks again for all the lovely reviews and everything. Sorry I couldn't get to some of them sooner. I unfortunately had some issues with my computer, as well as planning a trip out of town. I'm thankful I was able to get the internet where I'm at. Also, I meant to give a preview to one user, but their pm was locked, so if you didn't get a preview, I'm very sorry :(

Also, as a member of the Glee fandom, I had a hard time trying to decide if I wanted to post this chapter or not. We lost someone dear and I just want to give a big hug to all the other members of the Glee fandom.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lab Rats

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**Tik-Tok**

Where was he? How did he get here? What happened to him?

He looked around. The room was grey. There was a table in the middle of it. His heart started to race at the sight of the table. The throbbing, pounding of his heart made him slink backwards. The table…the handcuffs…why were they so familiar? Why did looking at this table make him want to run?

He took a step back. He didn't want to be here. Not here. Anywhere but here.

Footsteps. He could hear them. They were getting closer. He looked around. The sounds were coming from all around him. He looked to his left, running into a wall. He ran right and found another wall. Everywhere he looked there was a brick wall. Then brick became steel. Steel became glass. He was trapped. Trapped in a small round tube like some kind of art exhibit. He started pounding on the glass, calling out, screaming for help. But his voice was gone. He couldn't call for help. He was helpless. He couldn't…he can't…he…

…

Marcus woke with a start, eyes snapping open and his body twitching violently as if an electrical current had decided to use his chest as a dance floor. His breathing was slowing down. He needed to calm down. He needed to readjust to the waking world and realize that what he had just seen wasn't real. It was a just a nightmare.

That's when it dawned on him. He just had a nightmare. He couldn't remember the last time he dreamt about anything. Every time he went to sleep, it was like shutting down a computer. Everything would go blank. His entire body would just shut down and when he awoke, it would be like rebooting. He even saw the tiny bar that told him data was being processed. It had something to do with his bionics rebooting and needing to reconnect properly with his nervous system and jump start his body. The thought that he was clinically dead every time he went to bed was morbid, but hey, at least it gave him his bionics right? He could live with that? Right? That's what he was told anyways.

But the fact that he could dream…did that really mean his bionics was gone?

Before he could think any more about his current situation, the door opened and Leo stuck his head in.

"Good morning."

"Does no one in this house ever knock?"

"Nope," the younger boy said as he walked over to Marcus with a tray. There was a plate of eggs, toast, and bacon with a side of orange juice on the tray. Marcus didn't know whether to glare at it or dump the juice on Leo's head. Considering the fact that everyone in the house could take him out with a flick of their wrist (well everyone except Leo of course), Marcus opted to just glare at the plate.

"Mom wanted me to bring you breakfast."

"Gee, thanks," he said insincerely. Still, he sat up and allowed Leo to place the tray on his lap. Again, he was tempted to see what the juice would look like on Leo's face, but managed to fight the urge in favor of his stomach. He had skipped dinner last night, opting to go to bed after punching the screen to shut the annoying AI up. Not to mention that it smelled really, really good.

"Wait…you guys didn't drug this, did you?" he asked, his eyebrow raised up in its usual evil manner. However, this time it seemed less evil because it didn't go as far up. It looked like he was just raising his eyebrow. Maybe Evil Eyebrow was a bionic chip power.

"Why would we drug your food? We're not evi…oooolllution?"

"Nice save," Marcus rolled his eyes. He looked down at the food. He figured if he was going to die from food poisoning, he might as well enjoy it. Stabbing some eggs with the fork he was given, Marcus casually stuck the food in his mouth, not really expecting anything. He would later refuse to admit it, but he was pleasantly surprised. His eyes involuntarily widened and he found himself shoveling more food into his mouth until Leo called him out, telling him to stop.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. I don't think you could eat that fast, even with bionics!"

Marcus paused, fork stuck in his mouth and a bit of bacon sticking out. He realized how foolish he looked and quickly pulled out the fork and swallowed the bacon. He continued to eat at a more leisured pace.

"I take it you like my mom's cooking."

"Don't you have something better to do? Or are you just going to stand there and watch me eat, like a creeper?"

Leo took the hint and walked out the room, giving Marcus some peace and quiet.

"Hey, Marcus!"

So much for that. Marcus looked up to see Adam walking into his room, a bright, goofy smile on his face. He should have known that Adam would still act all goofy and happy. As dumb as Adam was, even Marcus would admit that the older teen just couldn't be brought down. He was just so happy and perky. It was sickening.

"What do you want, Adam?" Marcus asked, trying to put as much power into his glare as he could in hopes of getting the older male to leave him alone.

"I came to see if you wanted to watch Goober the Spunky Caboose with me," he smiled.

"Seriously? Goober the Spunky Caboose?"

"Yeah. It's a great show," Adam smiled. "I can't watch it with Chase because he likes to break it down. 'Uh, a caboose can't talk', 'Uh, a caboose can't go up a hill by itself'. And Bree is always on her phone with Owen."

"Why don't you watch it with Leo?" Marcus asked. "He's old enough to watch it," he joked. However it seemed that the joke was lost to Adam because the giant teen just shrugged.

"Ah, he's helping Mr. Davenport with something," he shrugged. "Come on, Marcus, it'll be fun!"

Without even waiting for Marcus to answer, or to get dressed, Adam picked Marcus up by the back of his silk pajama and hoisted him up and over his shoulder.

"Wait! Adam, put me down!" Marcus demanded as Adam happily made his way out of the room and towards the living room. Marcus would deny it, but his cheeks were flushing red with embarrassment. "Oh come on! This isn't fair!"

….

…

..

The Lab was in complete shambles. The "Marcus Blast", as they were dubbing it, had destroyed most of the equipment in the lab. Computers were down, Leo's Strategic Missions Specialist deck had come off the floor and was now fused to the wall due to the searing heat it was hit by. All three capsules had been destroyed, glass and steel frames now laying on the floor in a giant mess. The rock wall was missing a few of their grips. Computer screens were blown to smithereens, exposing their inner wires like they were dead carcasses.

However, despite the mess, Donald was still able to wrangle up enough equipment to make a temporary lab for him to get to work. On the laptop were the foot prints of a new code. 1's and 0's flew through the screen as he rapidly typed in codes. Leo held up a cup and Donald took a sip of his coffee through the straw in the cup.

Chase hung around, partly because he wanted to join in on the project, and partly because he really didn't want to be upstairs. Bree was once again trying to be normal, giggling as she texted Owen. Somehow Adam managed to convince Marcus to watch a 'Goober the Spunky Caboose' with him. He kind of felt bad for the other teen, no one deserved that kind of mind numbing entertainment, but at the same time, he didn't. If Marcus was going to live with them, then he might as well experience all the pros and cons of being in the Davenport household.

"So, any luck so far?" Chase heard Leo asking Mr. Davenport. The mission leader stepped over and looked over his father figure's shoulder.

"Not at the moment," Mr. Davenport answered solemnly. "Marcus's chip is a lot more complex than Adam, Bree, and Chase's. But I think I might have just cracked the first layer and…"

The screen lit up, showing schematics of Marcus's powers. There was a basic human diagram with the chip in red. Wires spread from the chip and extended to every part of Marcus's body. "Increadible."

"What?" the two boys asked.

"Well, according to this, Marcus's chip actually allows for him to replicate any bionic powers that he sees."

"How is that possible?" Chase asked him.

"Well, when you guys use your bionics, you emit small electrical pulses. They're harmless really. They're just so your chip won't overload from all the excess energy created from your bionics. Now, Marcus's chip allows for his eyes to actually read those pulses. He can then store the information in his brain and then his chip can use that information to replicate the bionic ability by reproducing the same electrical pulses that your chips emitted."

"So that's how he had everyone's powers," Leo realized. "That's kind of awesome. Can I get that?"

"No," Mr. Davenport and Chase replied at the same time, terrified at the idea of Leo getting that much power with his reckless behavior. Sure, they trusted him to be their strategic mission expert because he was smart and he had good ideas. They didn't, however, trust him with superpowers.

"So he can just copy whatever powers he wants and that's it?" Chase asked. "He can beat all of us easily."

"I think that was Henderson's plan," Mr. Davenport answered as he looked at the schematics. "Marcus was designed to be the ultimate weapon and designed to be obedient. See this here? It's an obedience sequence. It's the same code inputted into robots to prevent them from attacking their creators."

"That actually happens?" Leo asked.

"More than you'd think," Mr. Davenport frowned. "Anyways, this could explain Marcus's behavior. Something like this isn't designed to be used on a person. It could have severe mental repercussions. On the one hand, with it, Marcus really can't disobey Henderson without some serious side effects."

"Like?"

"Well, I'm not sure when it comes to people. Not exactly my taste, you know? Anyways, besides the obedience code, we come to the main problem." Mr. Davenport pointed to the screen and showed an enlarged picture of the chip. After typing something, more numbers and codes appeared with an arrow pointing to a small slot on the chip. "That there is the detonation code. It's your basic self-destruct code, set off by a trigger. Only this one is designed to set off a neutron blast that would take out everything in a quarter mile radius."

"So if we hadn't gotten the inhibitor on Marcus in time," Chase started.

"We wouldn't have made it out in time to survive the blast," Mr. Davenport answered solemnly. Chase couldn't help but find his shoes suddenly interesting. If they had listened to him, they could have all died. He hated the thought. He was designed to be the smartest person in the world. How could he not think his idea was for the best. He was supposed to have everything all planned out and everything figured out. And yet one little mistake. One misjudge in idea and his whole team, no his whole family could have been wiped out. His shoes were indeed more interesting right now.

"Well this is interesting." the billionaire suddenly spoke

"What is, Big D?"

"There's another program in the chip," Mr. Davenport noted as he started to rapidly type. Codes flew by the screen as firewalls popped up. He easily took them down. "Got it! Unbelievable. Henderson really wanted to cover his basis."

"What did he do this time?" Chase asked.

"This program is designed to erase any memories Marcus might have had about Henderson. A fail-safe in case Marcus managed to survive the blast. That way there was no evidence leading back to Henderson. His hands would be clean and Marcus would get all the blame."

"That's terrible."

"Yeah, that's just not right," Leo frowned.

"As bad as it is, this might come in handy for us. If Marcus can't remember who gave him the chip or why, he might be a little more cooperative in letting us remove it."

"You want to remove Marcus's chip?" Chase asked. "I mean, not that I'm complaining, but why?"

"In complete honesty? It just seems like the humane thing to do," the man answered. He turned to the two lab assistants, leaning against the counter. His shoulders were slumped and his features just sagged. "Even with the inhibitor, the chip is still steadily emitting a frequency from the detonation code. It can go off or even restart if the inhibitor is removed. And resetting the chip while it's still implanted in him might cause more damage to him than necessary. Resetting it might cause his brain to shut off and erase his memories. Or it could cause him to turn into an emotionless robot."

They were sobering options. Not exactly something they wanted to think about. "And if it's removed?"

"He'll have a better chance, but there are still some risks. If something goes wrong, he could end up paralyzed. The chip is implanted directly into his spine. Unlike with you kids and your little chip-switch-fiasco, which I'm still upset about by the way, Marcus's chip can only be removed with surgery."

"So, we either remove the chip and risk him being paralyzed," Leo started.

"Or we reset it and he might never be the same," Chase concluded.

….

…

..

Sloth: well, I'd say cya next week, but I'll be on vacation for a bit...and I need to get chapters done so I can get them out on a regular basis again xD. remember, users who reviews with pm's turned on gets a preview.


	5. Last Friday Night

Sloth: Hey! I managed to do an update while on vacation! Fortunately it's because I'm spending the day just doing nothing and relaxing so it's still a vaca xD Thanks again for everyone who reviewed and enjoyed reading. I honestly didn't expect so many people to enjoy the story considering that Lab Rats have so few fandom members due to it's channel. I'm sure if it was on the normal Disney or anywhere else, there would be more fans. Still can't help but enjoy the show because honestly, it's the family dynamic for me.

If you've read my other stories, you can see a big family theme going on. So seeing a blended family like on Lab Rats really caught my attention. So I'm glad people are enjoying reading a family oriented story rather than the countless instant love stories there are out in the world. But don't worry, if you've read my stories, you know that I also love action and mystery, so there will be a very interesting plot coming that'll break- I mean help. Yes help Marcus along. -insert slowly rising maniacal laughter that gets louder and frightening-

-cough- I mean...yeah. I don't own Lab Rats...yeah. So yeah, here's the next chapter.

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**Last Friday Night**

The weekend crawled by at a snail's pace.

He spent all of Saturday watching Goober the Spunky Caboose with Adam. It surprised him how such a simple, mind-numbing, and just plain silly show could satisfy Adam to no end. Adam was just mesmerized by the series to the point where Marcus was actually able to steal some chips from the older boy without being noticed. He was almost one hundred percent sure that if he had a permanent marker, he would be able to draw on Adam's face without him noticing as well.

He had continued to watching TV until lunch, when Leo's mom made sandwiches for everybody. By then, Chase had come upstairs briefly to grab some of the sandwiches for everyone downstairs. Marcus gave the other teen a brief smile, which Chase returned with a glare.

Honestly, He didn't mind Chase's obvious distrust in him. It made perfect sense really. He had used their friendship against them. He was a snake who slithered his way underneath their guard and bit them while they were down. If Chase was nice to him, Marcus would have thought that the Davenports were a bunch of creepy happy people in a Disney sitcom. This distrust and nastiness was the only thing insuring Marcus that he was still in reality.

"Hey, Chase," he had greeted, trying to be civil.

"Marcus," the other boy had drawled before taking the plate of food downstairs without another word.

Ok, so it hurt just a little bit, but not really enough to faze Marcus. So the boy just took his food and returned to his seat next to Adam, handing the other boy a sandwich. The two of them continued to watch TV. He wasn't going to admit it, but he was actually enjoying the leisure time. He honestly for the life of him couldn't remember the last time he got to watch TV. There were brief memories of 'Funeral Mishaps' and making fun of the 'Pig Zombies' movies. He remembered instances of 'Zaliens' and laughing at the idea that people were actually scared of movies at like.

A smile formed on his face at the memory. Of course Adam took note of the smile and mistook it for Marcus enjoying the cartoons.

"Aww, I knew you'd like Goober. Come here!"

"What? No, Adam-" He was pulled into a bone crushing bionic-hug. Without his own bionics, Marcus found himself quickly suffocated and his arms flailed around wildly in a meek attempt of freeing himself.

He was just glad Bree had come into the living room in time before he died from the lack of air.

That evening, Davenport ordered pizza. There were two separate orders; one extra-large supreme and a medium pepperoni pizza for everyone else. Leo's mom had gone to work, briefly kissing Leo a kiss on the head before instructing the kids not to destroy anything and no "parallel dimension hopping". Whatever that meant.

With Davenport, his little nerd, and his even shorter step-son all downstairs in what used to be the lab, it was just Marcus, Bree, and Adam.

"Owen!"

And Owen.

He knew Owen from school. They both had AP English together. The guy was…well there wasn't any real way to describe Owen. He was an artist with the mind of a revolutionist. He always spoke about how they had to 'fight the power' and how Principal Perry was a tyrant who turned schools into wrestling rings. Every time the boy got upset, he'd mope around with a sketch pad, drawing frowny faces on every visible white spot on the paper. And he was always trying to make some statement with art. He even once took a remote control from the teacher's lounge to make a mask.

So Marcus figured he was ok.

"Hey, Bree. Hey Marcus," the inspiring artist greeted. "What's with the sleepwear?"

"Oh," Marcus found himself at a loss for words. He looked down, realizing he was still wearing the silk pajamas someone had given him. "This? Um…I…"

"He's sleeping over," Bree jumped in. "Yeah. His parents are away on a business trip and he's staying with us until they get back."

It was a weak excuse. Anyone with any brain could see the lie that Bree had plastered together like it was some kind of cheap dime-store puzzle. There was no way that Owen was so enamored with Bree that he could possibly-

"Oh, well hope you're having fun, Marcus," Owen said with a confident smile. Marcus immediately took back what he said about Owen. The guy obviously had no brain cells when it came to Bree.

But there was something about Bree's lie that made Marcus's insides itch. There was something about that reason that turned his insides around and made him feel…well odd. He never had much time to think about it, because Owen joined the trio for pizza. So the evening was spent with Owen talking adamantly against Principal Perry's upcoming talent show with Bree staring dreamily at his every word.

"Oh, Owen, you're so insightful," Bree smiled.

"Gag me," Marcus muttered. It was unfortunate for him that Adam heard him and mistook that for a request. After trying to dislodge the pizza crust from his throat, Marcus made a note to never, ever try to be sarcastic around Adam. Ever.

By 10 o' clock, Owen and Bree were at the front door, trying to awkwardly say goodnight. He couldn't tell who was trying to kiss who. It was like a freaky robot dance, each one of them stepping over the other's toes while trying to suck face. Just when he thought he couldn't take another moment of them trying to tilt their heads into each other, Owen finally kissed Bree goodnight and went home. The girl sighed as if all her dreams came true and leaned on the door, her body practically turning into mush.

"He kissed me," she smiled.

"We know," the two males said simultaneously, only they weren't as enthusiastic as Bree. The girl gave them each a glare before huffing and going upstairs.

"Whatever, Doofuses, I'm going to my room."

"Wait, you guys have rooms?" Marcus suddenly asked.

"Bree does," Adam answered. "Since you blew up the lab and destroyed our capsules, we've been sleeping in Leo's room. Except Bree's got her own room because she's a girl," Adam answered innocently and playfully. Bree rolled her eyes.

"I also have my own room because Adam likes to set off stink bombs at night and everyone thinks it's funny to fan it all to me."

Marcus couldn't suppress the laugh until it was too late. He quickly saved face by clapping a hand on his mouth. He coughed as if to clear his throat. "That wasn't a laugh," he said when he saw Adam's face. "I just choked on pepperoni."

He soon broke out into a fit of laughter to go along with Adam and Bree's, their laughter ringing throughout the living room.

Sunday was a little tamer. There weren't any cartoons to watch, which oddly upset Marcus. Around 1 in the afternoon, Bree and Adam had to go down to the lab. Apparently there was a dangerous gas leak and they had to go take care of it. He didn't know why, but Marcus found himself following them down to the lab.

"Is that Davenport?" he asked and he looked up at the ceiling, Davenport's voice ringing in the tune of 'twinkle, twinkle little star'.

"Yeah," Bree sighed. "We just choose to ignore it."

When they came to a stop, Marcus finally got a chance to see the lab for the first time since he was here. It was definitely a mess. The capsules were still visible gone, their pads the only remnants of their existence. It looked like most of the glass and broken equipment had been cleaned up and thrown away. Part of him was amazed at the handy work, another felt bad that it was technically his fault.

"What's he doing here?"

Marcus looked up to see Chase glaring at him.

"Dude, what's with the spandex?"

"It's not spandex. It's a highly durable, flexible carbon threaded suit capable of withstanding temperatures up to 120 degrees Celsius and prevents chemical exposure," Chase informed him. Marcus just blinked.

"Yeah, it still looks like spandex."

Chase's red face brought a smile to his face. He thought messing with Leo was fun because he knew Leo couldn't do anything about it at the time. If he had known teasing and screwing with Chase was just as satisfying, he would have done it a long time ago.

"Oh, Marcus, good you're here," Davenport came up to him, stopping him from further tormenting Chase. He turned to the scientist with an innocent look, acting like he wasn't just messing with Chase. How he was able to switch from being devious to indifference so fast was mildly disturbing to the boy. No wonder Leo thought he was a creep.

"Yes, Mr. Davenport?"

"There are a few things I wanted to discuss with you."

"Like?"

"Well, now I know it's all fun and games, but you're going to have to go back to school soon."

"Great, and here I was hoping to start spring break early," he said, only mildly interested in the conversation. He wasn't really surprised. There was still two months left in the school year. What exactly was he going to do here? He couldn't just sit around and watch TV every day. I'd die of boredom within the first hour. In addition, unlike Leo and Chase, he wasn't all too keen about hanging around Davenport and be his lab assistant. He'd rather mow a law with moustache scissors.

"Well, don't get too excited. After school, I need you back here immediately. You're chip's…uh, let's say unique. It's going to take a few sessions to take care of it."

"A few sessions of what?"

"Well, in order to properly resolve the detonation sequence, we've got two options. We can reset the chip and risk wiping out your memories completely, or we can operate remove it completely."

Marcus immediately started to listen now. His hand instinctively flew to his neck. The idea of having his chip removed from him was terrifying. He couldn't imagine life without it. He was already having a tough time without his bionics at it is. He couldn't remember how long he's had the chip, but he knew it was long enough that it was a part of him. But the other option wasn't all that much appealing. He was having trouble remembering stuff at it was. His head already felt like a giant broken mess, why screw it up anymore?

"Are you sure there isn't anything else you can do?" he asked quietly, the fire dying in him. There was a twist in his chest as he saw the sympathetic look on Davenport's face.

"It's why I need you here after school, Marcus. I need to personally inspect your chip before we can decide the best course of action. Removing the chip might paralyze you from the waist down, so it's not an automatic choice."

"So I either risk losing my already scrambled memories, or never walk again." His temper was starting to rear its ugly head. "Great. That is just peachy." He turned to leave.

"Where are you going?"

"Upstairs," he answered curtly. He didn't want to be down here anymore. Not if he was going to spend all his afternoons down here, teetering between either being an amnesiac or being a paraplegic. No one called after him. No one followed him. And honestly, he didn't care anymore.

He spent the rest of the afternoon upstairs. At one point, Eddie tried to tease him, telling him he looked like a tiny Davenport in his pajamas, which was a stretch because "Donny's already tiny as it is". The AI quickly retreated when Marcus reminded him that, despite not being able to access his bionics anymore, he could still hack into a computer system and reconfigure Eddie into Edith. He was all alone now.

And honestly, it was better than nothing.

He passed out around seven and when he woke up from another nightmare, he found himself back upstairs in the spare bedroom, covers drawn over him. There was a stack of clothes on a spare desk in the corner. New clothes. Clothes that actually looked like they fit. He didn't know who brought him the new clothing. He figure it was a given that he couldn't go to school in nothing but pajamas, no matter how comfortable they were. He looked over at the nightstand and found a glass of ice water with a note attached to it.

"It case you get thirsty" it read.

A breath of air escaped his nose. He was kind of thirsty.

Overall, his first weekend at Davenports' was kind of a drawl. You could say he had fun, but then he'd have to smother you with a pillow until you stopped twitching.

* * *

Sloth: Ok, hope you enjoyed that. as usual, I'll see you next week. And if you review with your account with your pm activated, you'll get a preview! hope you guys enjoy the easy life. hehe. hehe. hahaha muahaha...-sees everyone looking at me with WTF looks- I mean...I'm not planning anything .


	6. Misery

Sloth: I have returned from vacation! With a new chapter! That begins an actual plot! I think. Maybe. I'm only a chapter in so...yeah. I've got something twisted-I mean fun plan. I really need to stop giving away naughty bits. Anyways, thanks a lot for all the reviews and feed back. I'm glad everyone is enjoying the story. Honestly when I started, I had no idea where this would go, so I hope everyone enjoys where things will be going.

Someone asked why the chapter titles were based on songs. Simple answer. I like glee and it's easier to just use the song I was listening to at the time of writing.

* * *

**Misery**

The pain struck him, exploding his left check. The pain bit into his cheek like fire ants and he soon found himself staring at his assailant's feet. He tried to get up, but his chest felt like it had just exploded. He fell to the floor, his muscles trembling. He looked up, seeing a blank face. The shadows wrapped around his assailant's face, hiding their features from him. His voice trembled as he spoke.

"I-I'm sorry. I-I won't fail again. I-I promise, D-"

Again, pain exploded across his face. He bit his lip. He couldn't cry. He couldn't. It was bad to cry. Crying was for the weak. Crying got you punished. He couldn't be punished. Not again. He was a good s-

"Marcus. Marcus."

He shivered. He wanted to curl up and hide. He didn't want to been seen crying. He didn't want to be punished.

"Marcus. Marcus!"

His eyes shot open, his eyes focusing back into the world, the dreary amber colors of the lab disappearing into the bright, happy blue and grey that was the Davenports' lab. He looked around him, seeing Chase at the computer and Davenport in front of him. He started to piece together everything in his head.

He remembered getting back from school with Chase. Leo, Bree, and Adam had gone to get something. He couldn't recall if it was food or if it was more bungee cords for some prank Adam wanted to pull on Chase. That left the two fifteen year olds by themselves on their walk to the Davenports'. It was a quiet walk, neither of them wanting to speak with each other. Marcus didn't say anything because he knew Chase was still giving him the stink eye. Frankly he thought he'd get the behavior from Leo, because he had been a total douche to the kid. So he didn't understand how Leo could be nice to him after everything he's done to the shrimp, while Chase looked like he wanted to drown Marcus in the tub.

When they finally got back to the Davenports', they had gone straight to the lab. After that, Marcus took a seat on the table as Davenport started to take scans and all sorts of other things that Marcus didn't understand. He must have fallen asleep during the examination. He wasn't really tired. He was just bored. Sitting around doing nothing while Davenport and his favorite Lab Rat talked about overly complex schematics and numbers was not how he wanted to spend his afternoons. He was smart, but that didn't mean he wanted to spend all his days with numbers.

"Sorry, I must have dozed off," he said as he hopped off the table.

"That's a surprise," Chase snorted, earning him a glare from the other boy.

"Well when I have to listen to you drone on and on, can you blame me?"

"Alright you two," Davenport quickly intervened as he saw the frown on Chase's face deepening. "No arguing. I don't want another incident like what happened with my Exoskeleton."

"Oh come on, that was almost a whole year ago," Chase pouted. Davenport gave Chase a look and the boy hung his head, making Marcus smile smugly until Davenport gave him the same look.

He didn't know why it made him feel so indignant. He was used to people giving him similar looks. Or was he? He really couldn't remember any other adults in his life other than Davenport, his teachers, and Principal Perry. And those weren't exactly the greatest role models in the world for him to look up to. His teachers weren't the most outstanding people in the world. Most of them just sat around, reading newspapers while the kids got to turn math into a free period. As for Principal Perry…well there were lots of reasons for why she wasn't a great role model, and half of those involved cats. He did admire her unorthodox methods for detention though.

Then there was Davenport. He knew he had to hate the man. He just didn't know why. Why did the person who turned him into a living weapon had so much animosity towards the other scientist that he wanted to use a teenage boy to destroy everything the man had? It all felt like some cheesy, underdeveloped plot hole for a sappy teenage book. And yet despite his engineered hatred, Davenport ignored Marcus's prior conditioning and was helping him remove a threat to his life.

Marcus's train of thought was interrupted by the hiss of the automatic doors and Adam, Bree, and Leo entering the lab.

"Guess who has fro-yo!" Adam announced as he held two cups in his hand.

"Did you remember to bring us any?" Chase asked with a raised brow. Adam looked at the two cups of frozen yogurt. They both had large, noticeable bites taken out of them. Yet despite the obvious fact that he had eaten most of the frozen treats, he held one of them out to Chase.

"Here you go, Chasey," he said, a proud smile on his face. Chase took the cup, his face locked in mild disgust.

"Gee. Sloppy Seconds. My favorite flavor," he frowned.

"You do realize that means something totally different, right?" Marcus asked from where he was leaning casually against the table. Chase gave him a glare, which Marcus was now dubbing "The Bitch Face". If Chase was going to be all touchy and grumpy around him, he might as well take the time to enjoy it and make fun of him as much as humanly possible. It also helped that Chase was so enthralled with his own little world that he wasn't as street smart as everyone else.

The sliding doors opened once more and Tasha came in.

"There you guys are," she smiled. "Who wants to help with dinner?"

"Oh, Tasha," Davenport piped up as he took a step towards his wife and gently, yet forcibly pushing Marcus towards the woman, "why don't you take Marcus?"

Marcus rolled his eyes. He was smart enough to know what the man was pulling. He could see it in Tasha's eyes, the questioning expression on her face mimicking his own. Davenport wanted him out of the lab. Probably to give his Lab Rats another mission. He probably though that Marcus wanted to be a part of the whole "Save the World" deal. He didn't. So he just played the part of the eager kid like he always did.

"Omg, I would totally love to help with dinner."

"Really?" everyone asked simultaneously.

"No, not really, but I know when someone wants me out of the room," he told them with a dead look. A smile formed on his face as he saw the scolding look Leo's mom gave Davenport. He could feel the man shrink sheepishly and his appreciation for Tasha Davenport only grew.

"Come on, Marcus. Let's leave the mad scientist with kids."

He followed her out of the room, glad to be out of the lab. It suddenly felt really stuffy and he did not want to be a part of whatever weird thing they were planning.

As soon as Marcus and Tasha were out of the Lab, Donald quickly turned to the kids.

"Was that really necessary?" Bree asked as she took a spoonful of her strawberry fro-yo.

"Yes," Donald replied as he turned to his computer. "Now, we all know that, as a genius I'm not really fazed by anything that happens around here," he started.

"And just when we thought we'd get an ego free week," Bree commented with a smug smile on her face. Her father figure gave her a look, but she just continued to eat her fro-yo like nothing was the matter.

"As I was saying, I'm not fazed by anything. Unless Leo's involved."

"Hey!"

"But, I may have…miscalculated a few things with Marcus's chip."

"Miscalculated how?" Chase asked warily. The short male looked like he was about to bolt for it, taking cover in case there was another explosion.

"It's nothing bad. Well, for us. We just got to avoid mentioning Henderson around Marcus."

"That's it?" Adam laughed. "That's not hard. I can even pronounce Henderson…Hey, I did it!"

Donald stared blankly at Adam for a second. "You, I'm most worried about. Look, I may have mentioned Henderson while I was checking Marcus's chip and he sort of…went catonic."

"Sort of?" Bree asked. "How do you sort of go catonic?"

"Well, when the brain-" Bree's hand flew to her younger brother's mouth, silencing him before he could go on another tirade as an excuse to show off his bionic intelligence.

"Marcus's brain seems to be overriding the chip," Donald told them. He brought up a virtual flat screen, showcasing the same virtual structure of Marcus and his chip. "Because the inhibitor is blocking his chip, it's allowing for his natural human brain functions to take place. So if we accidentally trigger something in his brain, like say mentioning his dad, we might force his brain to…uh…reboot itself and cause him to go into shock, or fight back the chip's programing."

There were several blank faces. Donald sighed and decided to use fewer words. "No one mention how, why, or who gave Marcus his chip, or Henderson, and I'll give you each fifty bucks."

"Deal," the teens chorused at once.

"If only businessmen were this easy to win over," he muttered to himself as he took out his wallet and started pulling out individual bills for the kids.

….

…

..

The following day at school, the kids were going about their usual business. In other words they were hanging out at the circular couch, just talking. Bree was talking with Owen, while Adam, Marcus, and Leo were talking about the difference between House M.D. and Scrubs. Mostly it was Marcus and Leo trying to tell Adam that the two shows did not take place in the same universe and that doctors normally don't have goofy comedic adventures at the patient's expense. As they were trying to convince him that a British doctor with a cane wouldn't hit him if he went to the hospital, Chase came over, a sour look on his face and a book in his hand.

"Can you believe this?" he grumbled as he opened the yearbook. The group looked at him, and then at the book.

"I don't see anything," Owen said aloud.

"Exactly, I don't have a 'Most Likely To'."

Marcus raised a perfectly evil eyebrow. "Seriously? You're upset that you're not on a page in the yearbook?"

Chase glared at the other male. "Easy for you to say. You're 'Most Likely To Be In A Rockband'."

Marcus just smiled triumphantly before performing an air-guitar solo just to rub some more salt in Chase's wounds. Leo sauntered up and looked into the year book.

"Hey, I finally got one. 'Most Likely To Not Get A 'Most Likely'. Awesome!" He saw the glare Chase fixed in his direction and just smiled. "Well, except for you."

"Chase, I'm sure you're just overreacting," Bree tried to consoled her little brother. "It's not like you're invisible or anything." Chase turned in her direction before opening the yearbook to his 'favorite' page. In it, there was a picture of Adam, followed by a picture of Bree, and then a picture of a question mark with the words "Chip Davenport" under it.

"I'm a misnamed question mark!"

Marcus let out a roar of laughter, throwing his head back in pleasure at Chase's misfortune. The brunette turned to the raven haired boy and gave him a small shove. It was enough to continue with Marcus's momentum and caused him to fall backwards, off the couch and onto a poor girl who was walking by at the time.

"Hah, you fell," Adam laughed.

As Chase turned back to lament in his obvious invisibility, Marcus was picking himself up.

"Sorry," he apologized as he helped the girl up. "My friend's just having a panic attack about something lame."

"It's ok," she said, brushing a strand of blond hair and allowing Marcus to get a better look at her. She was a young girl, probably sixteen, with long blond hair and bright blue eyes. She was wearing a green t-shirt under a pink leather jacket and blue skinny jeans. "It's my fault for not looking. Hey, you're that guitar kid."

"Uh, yeah. I'm Marcus."

"Kim. You should really use that at the talent show," she suggested.

"Talent show?"

"Listen up, Maggots," Principal Perry cried out as she walked into the hallway from the cafeteria. In her hand, she held sheet of paper. "Sign-ups for the talent show are being posted. You all get to audition before a pristine, and if I do say so, beautiful judge. Moi. If I like ya, which I rarely do, you get in."

"That talent show," Kim laughed. "Perk of being student body president, I know everything. I guess I'll be seeing you around?"

"Yeah," Marcus smiled. He watched her saunter off down the hall, meeting up with up a tall guy with shaggy brown hair that reached his shoulders. Marcus couldn't help but notice the odd logo on the guy's backpack. It was a picture of some guy with a really big afro, wearing a headband. He couldn't figure out why it looked so familiar.

His thoughts were cut off as Adam leaned in, chanting "Marcus likes a girl. Marcus likes a girl, Marcus-" An elbow to Adam's gut quickly silenced the taller teen. "Ow!"

"Come on," Bree smiled as she and Owen walked over. "Let's get to class before Chase runs out of cards."

Looking over, they saw Chase trying to impress some girls with a magic trick. Only it wasn't working. He kept pulling out cards, asking "is this your card" and then throwing it away when he got it wrong. Leo finally ended the disaster by pulling out a card from the mess that was Chase's hair and unveiling the real card.

Marcus looked back over at the sign-up sheet and then back at the assembled group of kids.

A talent show couldn't be that bad could it?

* * *

Sloth: So, yeah, I don't always use OC, so I use characters based on existing shows. So yeah, can you guess who the newbies are?


	7. Fireworks

Sloth: So I'm posting this a day early because I won't be home tomorrow since I'll be watching Percy Jackson, Sea of Monsters right after work. Woot, PERCY JACKSON! LOGAN LERMAN, JAKE ABEL, ALEXANDRIA DADDARIO! ahump. Excuse me, minor fangasm. So yeah that's the reason for an early update.

Yup, it's because of that and not because I was screaming at the TV at the ending of Bionic Showdown. Nope.

On that note, I did enjoy Bionic Showdown. It would have been better if XD didn't spoil it with their previews and giving away that Douglas was the Lab Rat's bio-dad. Marcus was a surprise. He wasn't even human and that's just sad. Why does TV keep ruining all my babies. My baby! They could have saved him, brought him into the fold! Made him human! Not...gah...urgh...ASDFGHJKLASDFGHJKL! -throws Masterbolt at random pedestrian-...anywho.

I'm glad you guys caught on to who the OC's are based on. Now, remember, those aren't the real Jack and Kim from Kickin' It. They're just based on the characters. They're still their own. I just thought this would be easier because most of my OC are for my plays or books that I'm writing and I'd like to keep them there for now. That's not to say there won't be any pure OC's, they'll just be like pedestrian # 2 who gets killed off by...whoops, TMI. Anyways, I'm glad some of you liked them, and some of you don't, that's ok. In my opinion, that's what OC's are. Also, they won't appear every chapter, so you can think of them as guest stars.

Plot will be developing here, so those who like to figure out mystery plots, get your notebooks out, because I'm tossing the pieces out there and I hope you guys stay with me to figure out the overall plot. PS, please mind the Chase bashing. He is one of my favorites and I like to angst up my favorites. Look what I'm doing to Marcus. So while this seems like bashing, it's all from Marcus's POV and it all leads to something. Trust me, it'll all work out for my babies.

* * *

**Fireworks**

Donald was worried. It had been almost two hours since school had let out and there was no sign of Marcus or any of the kids. Now he knew he shouldn't have the worry about anything. Four of the most destructive teenagers in the world, along with his equally destructive yet bionic-less step-son, were out there in the great unknown. Sure, they spent the last six hours in the most unforgiving, inhumane, soul-crushing environment in the world…ok so he was downright worried to the point where he was about to call the navy.

Just as he was about to call in for back-up and begin an all-out manhunt, the automatic doors opened and Chase was walking in, head held high and a smug look on his face. Normally he'd be proud, but Chase didn't usually look so happy after school.

Marcus came storming in right after. With a face as red as a tomato and a look that could kill, it was definitely a sign that something was wrong.

"You stole my act!" the raven haired teen growled.

"Oh come on, we've already been over this," Chase said as he turned around to face Marcus.

"You stole my act!"

"You're starting to sound like a broken record."

"That's because you stole my act!"

"Uh, did I miss something here?" Donald finally spoke up, getting the attention of the two youngest bionic-teens.

"He stole my act for the talent show!"

Donald raised an eyebrow before turning to the younger boy, "Chase?"

"Look," Chase started to explain. "We were auditioning for the talent show and-"

"He bombed so hard trying to bore everyone to death with some lame human dictionary talent," Marcus quickly interrupted. He ignored Chase's seething glare and continued with his tirade. He took my guitar and started to play it on stage, right before I could get on! He stole my act for the show. He even took the song I was going to play!"

"You were the closest to me. It was that or upstage Leo's magic show."

"You did it on purpose," Marcus snarled.

To his credit, Donald was taking in the show very well. Part of him wanted to stop it, knowing that if this continued, one of the boys was going to throw a punch. Another part of him thought this would be good for them. It was no secret that Chase didn't like Marcus and vice versa. Hashing out differences usually worked. He usually worked for Chase and Adam. It worked for Donald and his brother. It might just work for Chase and Marcus.

"Ever since I moved in, you've been trying to undermine me," Marcus accused.

"Have not. You're just being paranoid." Chase tried to play it cool. Marcus didn't seem to appreciate the comment. His eyes seemed to get a green tint to them and Donald stood up straight.

"Ragh, you're so frustrating!" Marcus was seething now. He was grinding his teeth in frustration, and Chase was loving it. The look on the other boy's face just drove Marcus insane. "You're so god damn annoying. You're always so smug, you always think you're better than everyone just because you're smarter, you overreact to every tiny little insignificant detail just because you don't like it, and you're a no-good, rotten, talent-stealing hick!"

Marcus's eyes were noticeably green now. Chase stepped back and Donald instinctively placed on hand on the boy. There was loud POP, and Marcus clapped his hands on his eyes, crying out in pain. At the same time, a bright blue electrical pulse flew out from the back of Marcus's neck and slammed into Eddie's screen just as the AI came on to watch the show.

"_Ah! My face! Not again!"_

The trio looked at the damage, eyes wide. Marcus turned back and quickly said, "I didn't do it."

….

The scan was completed and Marcus got off the table, turning to see the virtual screen.

"Well," Davenport started, "the good news is that the inhibitor is still working. The bad news is that your chip was glitching due to the constant interruptions and your brainwave patterns continuing to bombard it. When you got mad, you caused your chip to glitch and the inhibitor reacted, pulling that energy back into the chip, thus causing the electrical surge. The more active your brain, the faster the inhibitor and chip react, thus causing random outburst of overflowing energy."

"So in other words, if I get mad, bad things happen."

"Uh, yeah. If you want to put it the easy way," Davenport rolled his eyes. The billionaire turned to the two boys. Despite being only two inches taller than them, he never looked more intimidating. Chase and Marcus both had the decency to hang their heads, looking anywhere other than Davenport's gaze.

"We're lucky it was just an electrical shortage and nothing more dangerous."

"_Easy for you to say. You still have your face!"_

"Not now, Eddie," Davenport reprimanded the AI. He turned back to the boys. "Look, guys, I know you two have some differences to sort you." Chase shorted and Marcus gave an indignant huff. "But you two have to work out these differences. Chase, it was wrong of you to steal from Marcus."

"But-"

"Ah, no buts. I'm parenting. And Marcus, I know you're mad, but you can't let it get the best of you. Especially since right now, you're emotions are affecting the inhibitor. If you can't control yourself, how are we supposed to trust you around other people?"

"Yeah, whatever," Marcus replied, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at his shoes like a three year-old in time out. It was just so unfair. Chase stole his talent and now he was being punished. He sent the other boy a glare, which Chase returned.

"Wait a minute, where did you guys a guitar?" Davenport suddenly asked. "Didn't you break yours, Marcus?"

"Uh…" This time the red in Marcus's face was from embarrassment. He knew where he got the guitar. He had begged and pleaded, and then threw in the wounded bionic puppy dog eyes to convince Bree to super-speed home to borrow one of Davenport's guitars. He was hoping he could return it without being caught. Well, before Chase took it. A glace towards Chase showed that the other teen wasn't going to rat him out, knowing full well he'd be in just as much trouble since he played with the priceless guitar. "See…we uh…I…"

"Hey," Tasha interrupted through the video screen. "Will someone help me with the groceries?"

"Coming!" Marcus and Chase said simultaneously, tripping over one another as they ran for the exit like the dogs of hell were after them. They were gone faster than Davenport could keep up, leaving the billionaire in the dark about where the guitar had come from.

….

…

..

The next day at school, Marcus was still seething. With no other talent to show off, he couldn't get into the talent show. Leo had tried to cheer him up with a magic trick. Connecting three rings together and then making the chain disappear in a show of sparks and smoke. It was impressive and Marcus asked if he could make Chase disappear. When Leo answered no, Marcus just fixed a glare on the other boy and Leo squirmed away.

"If only being creepy was a talent," Marcus muttered to himself.

"Hi!"

Marcus almost jumped out of his seat from the unexpected greeting. Looking up, he found Kim smiling down at him before taking a seat. He looked around the cafeteria, wondering if he was being punked. The class president was sitting right in front of him. The pretty class president. Maybe he was dreaming again.

"Hey, Kim," he started hesitantly.

"So I saw what happened yesterday at auditions," she told him sympathetically. "Sorry that guy took you're talent."

"Thank you," Marcus said. "You're like the only other person who seemed to care. My friends all think it's no big deal. Well, technically Adam doesn't think. And Bree's too busy trying to impress Owen with her ideas of storming the school. And Leo's still trying to do his magic tricks to impress girls."

Kim laughed. Marcus couldn't tell if she actually found his joke funny, or if she was just being polite. Even he thought the joke was bad. But he wasn't going to complain. He got a girl to laugh. So, yeah, score one for Marcus.

As he was relishing this accomplishment, a boy sat down next to Kim. Marcus recognized him as the same boy with the weird karate bag. Something-Japanese Food-Dojo. The boy set the back down and Marcus couldn't help but look at it. Why did it look so familiar? He shook his head, pushing the thought to the back of his mind with everything else.

"Hey, Jack. Marcus, this is my friend, Jack. Jack, this is Marcus," Kim introduced. The taller male smiled at Marcus and extended his arm. Marcus shook it and immediately regretted it. Jack had a strong grip. It was like someone had placed his hand in a vice and just started to squeeze. He was surprised he was able to pull away with anything.

"Nice to meet you," Jack said. There was no hostility in his voice, just kindness and earnest. Even his eyes showed nothing but the best intentions. Being an expert at having to keep up a charade, Marcus was able to read faces. The tight grip must have just been a coincident and nothing more. "You're the one who had his guitar taken from him last night, weren't you?"

"Gee, did everyone see that?" Marcus asked with a roll of his eyes.

"Eh, I was right behind you. I was the guy with the boards."

"Broke them all in less than five seconds," Kim smiled proudly. "Even managed to impress Principal Perry."

"And she's a tough one to crack," Jack commented. "Almost thought I had to break the bricks just to get in."

"She's not that hard to crack," Marcus smirked. "Just get a giant nutcracker."

"Or a giant bag of popcorn."

They all shared a good laugh. An air of relaxation fell around him. He felt at ease, his body loosening up as he talked with them. There was something about them that just made him feel safe. Sure, he didn't really have to feel safe. He was practically indestructible. Well, was. And even while living with the Davenports, he felt different. Not like he was now.

With the Davenports he left comfort, acceptance, the occasional grumpiness, and he felt like he was living in a sitcom. He liked it. It felt nice. But this, sitting here with Jack and Kim…he didn't know why he just felt so comfortable around him. Was it because they didn't know of his past. They didn't know he was a bad guy and they just saw a kid and nothing else. He didn't feel the need to lie or try to manipulate them. He didn't feel the need to try to win them over because they were already talking to him.

This must have been what it felt like to have genuine friends. He just felt so happy.

"So, hey Marcus," Jack started after the trio got done talking about video games, "there's going to be an after party after the talent show. Wanna come?"

"Yeah, it'll be amazing. Amanda Gibson throws the best parties," Kim added.

Marcus felt his heart racing. He was actually being invited to a party? An actual party. "Yeah, of course I'll go. I'll just have to ask my…"

He paused. What did he say? He couldn't think of it. It was like a giant black box had just dropped itself right into his train of thought and put a giant pause to it. His eyes glazed over as he tried to figure out what was wrong. Who did he have to ask? His mom? No, that wasn't right. He didn't have one. His grandmother? No, she was in Florida…or was she? Why couldn't he remember who was in charge of him? It was just so frustrating.

The thought started to turn the gears in his head. He had to have parents right? It wasn't like he was just born out of thin air. And, thanks to a very horrific and graphic Health Education class that he and half the student population would like to forget, he knew where babies came from. So who were his parents? He wanted to know. Who was his mom? Who was his-

He groaned, his head suddenly feeling like it was about to explode.

"Marcus? Are you ok?"

The raven haired boy nodded. "Yeah. Sorry. Migraine."

"Dude, that sucks," Jack said.

Marcus nodded and shook his head. The feeling disappeared just as quickly as it came. He blinked, all thoughts about what he was thinking about completely gone and he remembered what Kim had asked him before. "So, anyways, I'll just have to ask Mr. Davenport if I can go."

"Mr. Davenport?" Jack asked. "Isn't that Adam, Bree, Dooley and Chip's Dad?"

"It's Chase, but yeah. I'm living with them at the moment," he told them, not bothering to question why it suddenly started to feel weird in the cafeteria.

"Well, they can come too," Kim smiled. "The more the merrier. But only if Chase doesn't try to steal anything from anyone."

Marcus snorted. If only.

….

…

..

Later that day, the Lab Rats were all gathered in the living, Marcus's earlier thoughts of parenthood completely gone. Leo was once again practicing magic, using Adam as a test dummy. Chase and Marcus were sitting on either side of Adam. They needed a least one giant wall of meat between them because Marcus was still sore about losing out on the talent show and Chase was still rubbing it in.

Bree was happily talking to one of her friends, excited about the after party on Friday. Like he had promised, Marcus told Adam, Bree, and Leo that they were invited. He thought about Chase, but then again he was sure _Chip_ wouldn't enjoy being socially accepted by everyone.

"Marcus, Chase, will you two come up here for a second?" Tasha asked from upstairs, her voice carrying through the house.

Marcus and Chase looked at each other, the same thought going through their heads. "What did you do?" Not wanting to delay whatever horror Tasha was going to strike them down with, the two got off the couch. They made sure to both walk in front of Bree to obscure her view of Teen Fiancé. It might have been the only activity they both loved to do with each other.

With the minor joy over, they trotted up the steps and came a stop in front of Marcus's room. His room was nice, about the size of a master bedroom. The room had originally been bare, with just a night stand, a small queen sized bed, a closest, and a broken screen from where he punched Eddie. Now though, there was a second queen sized bed, taking up most of the room and making it look smaller. This new bed had a blue comforter and matching pillows. Marcus's maroon covered bed was moved to the side to allow for the other bed and enough walking space. There was also a dresser opposite to the beds and new teal curtains hanging over the windows.

"Huh, what happened?" Marcus asked warily as Tasha finished adjusting the pillow on the second bed.

"Oh good, you're here. Well, what do you think?"

"It looks like someone's moving in," Marcus said warily.

"Well, Donald and I were talking," Tasha started.

"I suddenly do not like where this is going," Chase commented and Marcus was inclined to agree.

"After what happened at auditions, we thought that the two of you don't spend a lot of time together."

"That's because he tried to kill me," was Chase's excuse while "He's annoying," was Marcus's excuse.

"Well whatever the case," Tasha started, this time her voice holding a tone that said there were to be no interruptions. "We both agreed that in order for you to get along better, you're going to be sharing a room."

"What?" the boys exclaimed simultaneously.

"You can't! He'll smother me in my sleep!" Chase begged, dropping to his knees and clapping his hands together.

"He'll bore me to death with all his lame jokes and math problems," Marcus cried, his eyes wide with exaggerated horror.

"My jokes aren't lame."

"Yeah, well they're the only reason why I'd smother you right now."

"Ok, enough," Tasha interrupted before the duo could duke it out. "It might seem like a bad idea now, but trust me, you'll love it. Besides, Donald said, and I quote 'I'm the boss, they're not. What I say goes. Muahaha'."

"Yeah, that sounds like Mr. Davenport," Chase mumbled as he sat on the floor, defeated.

Marcus walked up to Tasha, his eyes wide and lips pouting in a frown. He knew it was wrong to manipulate, but he was disparate. Besides, who could say no to his puppy dog face? "Please Mrs. Davenport," he whined, drawing out the please. "Can't you just talk to Mr. Davenport just a little? Not just for my sake, but for poor, poor Chasey."

"Nice try Marcus, but Leo's been using that with me since he was six. I'm immune to it now. But good work with the pout, Leo could never get that right."

Marcus cursed Leo with all his might. His ultimate weapon was gone and he was now trapped in a room with them most selfish, egotistical, nerdy, talent-stealing dorkwad in history. And for once it wasn't Davenport. Tasha smiled and pleasantly, unaware of the glares the boys were sending to each other, and simply padded them both on the head like they were three-year olds and walked out, telling them dinner would be in half-an-hour. Once she was gone, the boys turned to each other.

Chase opened his mouth and Marcus felt a small jolt in the back of his neck. Things seemed to slow down. Marcus saw every muscle twitch, every move of his lips. Before he could help himself, he started copying Chase.

They simultaneously shouted, "This is all your fault! No, yours! Stop copying me! No, you stop! Stop it. Stop! You think you're being funny but you're being really, really childish. You wear make-up! You cry in your sleep! You keep a ruler by the bed and every morning when you wake up – ok never mind enough!"

They were breathing heavily now, both flustered, but their glares were still fixed on each other. Finally, Chase asked, "What was that?"

"I dunno," Marcus lied.

That night, after dinner, when everyone was going to bed, Marcus was very, very tempted to smother Chase in his sleep. Everyone thought Adam snoring was bad, at least Adam didn't talk in his sleep. For the past hour Chase had been mumbling in his sleep about freaking math problems. Math! Who does that? He was about to snap and start pillow-slapping Chase to death when the most interesting thing happened.

"No, pi equals the square root of…-snort-…I'M GOING TO SNAP YOUR KNEECAPS, MAGGOT!"

Marcus shot up, eyes wide as he turned to Chase, seeing the brunette peacefully sleeping as if he didn't just go commando. Then a thought clicked. He remembered something. Chase had a commando app. He had heard about it and had been curious about it because Marcus himself didn't have it. He couldn't copy anything he never saw, and since he never saw the commando app, he never knew how it worked. All he knew was that it was a complete opposite of Chase and that the other boy hated it.

A mischievous smile formed on his face. "Oh sweet, sweet revenge how lovely are ye."

* * *

Sloth: This is by far the longest and i'm hoping the chapters get longer. Unfortunately I haven't started on chapter 8 yet, so no previews for chapter 8. I'm hoping to use this weekend to get the next few chapters written. I'm not sure how many chapters there will be. Most of my stories end around 10 or 15, but with my career choice, I'm shooting for much longer. So, hope you guys are in for the long run. Hope you guys are enjoying the story. And hope you're all in denial about the last 2 minutes of Bionic Showdown like I am :D

PS, Bionic Showdown will not affect the story, but I so called Marcus's dad leaving him behind. Called it!

Until next week!


	8. We Will Rock You

Sloth: Hey guys! Sorry about the late chapter. I lost my internet the past week. So I had no computer access for a whole week. I mean, I had my phone, but I really can't upload a story from my phone ya know? Anyways, thanks Angelina for being worried about me, that was very kind of you. And thank you everyone else who reviewed.

Yes, I see everyone is excited for Spike, and honestly, I wanted him to come up this chapter too. However, while rereading the chapter, I was hit with inspiration. So the chapter ended differently than how I wanted to originally. I think those extra days helped give me a better ending for this chapter, so I hope you like it too. I hope this gives you more insight on our Lab Rats and their little family.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lab Rats

* * *

**We Will Rock You**

It was finally the day of the talent show. In less than nine hours, a troop of kids would put themselves in front of a crowd of patronizing adults and cranky grandparents. No child in their right mind would ever truly want to be part of a talent show, forced to put on a fake smile and please all the happy parents and Perry. Of course, in truth, the teens taking part in the talent show were just doing it for a 50 dollar gift card and the after party.

Well, everyone except for Chase, who was practicing very loudly in his room. Scratch that, he was practicing very loudly in his AND Marcus's joint room. Marcus had a pillow over his ears, his cheeks flushed red from rage. He was trying so hard to remain calm. He needed to remain calm, because the last thing he wanted was another meltdown like the day before.

It had been a complete accident. He had been downstairs, getting another check up on his chip. At the same time, the Lab Rats were going through training. And Adam seemed to find joy in bouncing a ball against the back of Marcus's head. Why? Lord only knows, it's Adam for crying out loud. He had begged and even tried to use his super-pout on him. But sadly, not even his pleading pouts worked on Adam and after a ball him in square in the face, he finally exploded.

"What is your problem!?" He screamed, getting everyone's attention. "I asked you to stop, so why won't you –" BOOM

Another spark of electricity flew from the back of his neck and vaporized Leo's desk. The room was silent. All eyes were on him. He shot out of the room faster than Bree, bionic or not. He couldn't believe he had glitched again. He was supposed to be a fearsome bionic teen. He could never recall a time where he had glitched and now that he didn't have his powers, he was glitching left and right. Worse of all, after the incident, Davenport has told him he wasn't allowed to go to the talent show or the party.

He could understand the reasoning. His glitches were dangerous. They caused explosions and someone could get hurt. However, he was a teenager and he wanted to go. He was finally making his own friends. No one was telling him who to befriend and he didn't live with them. It made him feel normal, and as weird as that feeling was, he was enjoying it. So he really wanted to go and hang out with everyone.

He did everything he could to twist Davenport's arm. He pleaded. He offered to let the billionaire experiment on him. And when all hope was lost, he went to Tasha. Out of the two adults, he could understand why all the kids went to Tasha for help with social stuff. Sure, the woman had her weird "let me be the cool mom" moments, but Tasha was still friendly and helpful. He definitely liked her more than Davenport that was sure.

Tasha managed to convince Davenport to give him one last chance. He was getting a chance to be a teenager and hang out with kids his age that didn't have bionic powers. The catch? He couldn't glitch. Just one glitch and there went his Friday night. That brings him back to his current situation; trying very hard not to get mad at Chase. He knew his glitches seemed to go off whenever he was mad. Chase apparently figured it out too from the way the boy kept practicing. However, he couldn't let the other boy get to him. He couldn't get mad at Chase, even though the bionic nerd was practicing on a guitar, playing a song Marcus had written for the talent show.

"You're doing this on purpose aren't you?" Marcus growled through gritted teeth. Chase gave him a cockeyed look.

"I've no idea what you're talking about," Chase answered with a smirk. Marcus glared. He could feel the electrical tingle in the back of his neck. Oh how he wished he could give Chase a piece of his mind. Or at least give him a nice, big electrical hug. But sadly, if he did that he'd miss out on the party. He wasn't going to let Chase ruin his night. Even if Chase's playing was really, really starting to grind his gears.

"You know what? I'm going to get something to eat," Marcus finally declared before marching out of their room. The music was still blasting as he walked into the living room, strolling past Bree, Owen, Adam, and a giant butter bust of Principal Perry.

Wait, what?

"What's that?" Marcus asked as he looked at the giant bust.

"It's Butter Perry," Bree answered. The tone of her voice told him that Bree was far less impressed than the two boys who were grinning like they had just created the Mona Lisa. She sounded down right horrified. And with good reason. It was terrifyingly accurate.

"I just rubbed a piece of toast on her face," Adam added proudly.

"You did," Marcus nodded. This was weirder than the time he came home early and saw Davenport in the lap practicing Tea Kwon Do. He still wasn't able to get the image out of his mind. "Why did you guys make a butter bust of Principal Perry?"

"Because this is a protest," Owen started. "Perry _is _butter. She beats the milky smooth freedom that is talent until it because the artery clogging substance known as butter."

"Okay then," Marcus nodded. He didn't get it, but whatever. Adam and Owen ran out of the room, talking about making a giant pair of glasses. He turned to Bree, brow raised in the usual creepy manner. "What was that?"

"I don't know!" Bree answered, arms thrown up as she let out an exasperated sigh. "All I wanted was to spend some time with Owen and now he and Adam have made Butter Perry!"

"I know how that feels like," Marcus muttered, eyes glancing towards Butter Perry and, much to his disgust, found himself getting hungry. Just as he was about to grab some bread and spread some of Perry's hair onto it, he found Bree staring at him. "What?"

"You're still hung up about Chase stealing your talent aren't you?" she asked, a small smile pulling at her lips.

"What? No," he lied, avoiding Bree's knowing gaze. He tried to look away, but Bree just kept staring at him. Her arms were crossed, her brow raised, mouth twisted into a smirk. She took a step towards him and he couldn't help but pout. "Stop that. It's like you're trying to look into my soul. It's creepy."

"I grew up with two brothers and spent the last year with Leo added into the mix," she told him with a proud smile. "I've perfected the art of soul-gazing glares. Now fess up, you're still mad at him."

Marcus started to wonder when his life became such an open book. He never had to deal with this before. No one ever paid attention to him. He was just another face in the crowd, someone people overlooked. He was fine with it. It was lonely, but it was his life. Now he had to deal with people trying to analyze him and it was kind of annoying.

"Yeah, whatever," he answered before going to the fridge and started a hunt for some yogurt. He could feel Bree come up behind him. "What?" he asked exasperated. What was it with this family and being so nosy?

"Look, Marcus, if Chase is getting on your nerves, just do what we do."

"Let me guess, talk to him?" he snarked. He didn't need to talk to Chase. He wanted to do punch the nerd in the face repeatedly.

"Actually I was going to say you should brank him." Marcus paused, pulling his head out from the fridge and gave Bree a raised-brow look. "Adam and I always used to pull pranks on him. I mean, we love him, he's out little brother. But like any baby brother, he gets really, really annoying. I mean I stopped, but Adam still does it."

"Yeah, but I can't chuck Chase across a room. I don't have bionics anymore, remember?" Marcus said as he pointed up at his inhibitor.

"I didn't say you had to physically throw him. Just do something that'll annoy him. Like…dye his underwear pink. Post him trying to dance online. Cut his hair." She kept listing different ways to embarrass Chase, but Marcus wasn't listening. He was 1) impressed that Bree could be so devious, and 2) already thinking of a plan. It might not be as harmless as she wanted it to be, but oh did he have a plan.

"Thanks Bree. I think I have an idea," he smiled. Bree gave him a smile in return before turning around at Butter Perry.

"No problem…now any idea how to get rid of this?"

"Popcorn?"

….

…

..

Leo was humming a jaunty tune as he walked into the lab. He was making his way pass Big D's little work table when a remote control hit him upside the head. Safe to say, he said a word he heard his mom use every time she lost a new report. He turned, trying to find his aggressor. There, crouched in front of the desk was Marcus. The raven haired bionic-teen was rummaging through the various gadgets that were hidden within the lower shelf.

He watched as Marcus examined another gadget before unceremoniously tossing it behind his shoulder as if it was a piece of trash. Leo decided to intervene before his head became another target. "Uh, what are you doing?" he asked after avoiding a head injury with a gyro ball.

Marcus shot up, his head banging loudly against the desk. He let out a curse that he had obviously gotten from some R-rated movies. The bionic-teen turned around, a frown crossing his face as he rubbed the back of his head. "Ow. Could you not sneak up on me?"

"Well, it would have been easier if you weren't throwing things at my head," Leo snarked. "What are you doing?"

"Eddie said there was a device stashed here that would block Chase's chip," Marcus replied. "Ha! Found it!"

Leo blinked before he eyed the device. "I thought that was a cat shaver."

"Yeah, apparently it does both. Davenport's such a weirdo."

"Right. So why were you looking for a device to mess with Chase's chip?" Leo asked as he took a step towards the taller boy. Marcus raised an eyebrow at the question. Then he looked at the device and then back at Leo.

"Oh! No, it's not what you think. I'm just going to mess with Chase."

"That's not exactly helping your case."

Marcus let out an exasperated sigh. "Look, I'm just sick and tired of him trying to mess with me," he said. He looked at Leo, trying to persuade the youth to agree with him. However, he knew Leo was going to be a hard less. Though he'll never admit it, Leo was a smart kid. He was able to figure out Marcus was a bad guy. He was able to solve problems like gas leaks and was a decent mission controls specialist, or what it was called. He could estimate that given a few years, Leo could be a brilliant inventor or businessman. Again, he'll never admit it to Leo's face, because despite all the praise, Leo was a fourteen year old boy with an ego that rivaled both Davenport and Chase.

"So you're going to use a chip disruptor on Chase?"

"Yup. It should disrupt Chase's chip just long enough for him to forget how to play," Marcus explained with a devious smile. The smile quickly vanished when he saw the look on Leo's face. "Why is everyone taking my eyebrow bit? That's my thing."

"Well at least you know how creepy it is," Leo told the older boy. "Look, Marcus, I'm all for the Chase pranks, but don't you think this is a bit much?"

"I'm just going turn it on and off while he's playing the guitar," Marcus told him. "Look, you can even supervise me. You go on right after him."

"I don't know," Leo started. Marcus thought the boy was going to try to convince him not to do it. However, for the second time that afternoon, Marcus was surprised by the deviousness of his new housemates. Instead of giving him some speech about being nice and kind, Leo just walked right up to him and held out his hand.

"Leo, if you're looking for someone to hold your hand while you potty-train, go ask someone else."

"Hey, if you want me to get involved, I'm just getting my piece of the cut," the mischievous little rat smiled.

"Leo, I'm not trying to rob a bank."

"Or I could just go to my mom or Big D and tell them what you're up to."

Marcus frowned. He couldn't get caught, otherwise he would be able to go with Jack and Kim to the party. Leo would probably rat him out now that there wasn't a reason to keep quiet. He couldn't use the excuse of telling people about Adam, Bree, and Chase's bionics. He'd be out of a home. And while Chase would be gone, he wouldn't have anyone to watch TV with. He sighed in defeat. "You're doing this to get back at me for messing with you, aren't you?"

"And to buy Pokemon X and Y," the boy admitted.

Hanging his head, Marcus pulled out his wallet and fished out a twenty. Leo pocketed the cash and smiled.

"Enjoy messing with Chase."

"Oh trust me, I will." Marcus smiled as he looked at the device. He almost felt like laughed maniacally, if he only could get it right.

….

…

..

It was talent show time. The whole gym/cafeteria/theater was packed with everyone who was eager to see the kids perform. Owen, Adam, and Bree were missing though. Apparently Bree had turned up the heat and melted Perry's bust. Owen had walked out, furious. There was no "I'm going to draw my feelings" or quiet walking. Owen had just walked straight out and slammed the doors so loud that he actually knocked a picture frame off its hook.

Adam was also hurt and decided to stay behind, wiping up the melted butter on a piece of toast and snacking his sorrows away. Bree no longer felt like going to either the talent show or party. Marcus kind of felt bad and for a brief moment, he wanted to stay behind and cheer her up. But then Chase came down, asking if everyone was ready to "Rock & Roll" and his pride took over.

So here he was, backstage with Leo, chip-disruptor in hand and smirking as Chase walked up on stage. He was going to humiliate the boy. Chase wanted the whole school to recognize him, see him. Well, Chase was going to get his wish. However, instead of being recognized as an awesome guitarist, he was going to be known as the boy who utterly failed and humiliated himself in front of everyone. He could almost see the look on Chase's face and oh would he enjoy it.

He waited for the right moment. He waited just as Chase started to play. The spotlight hit Chase and Marcus held up the chip disruptor. Chase started to strum and Marcus took aim. The music filled the air, a slow melodic tune filling the air before transitioning into a harder, faster pop tune. This wasn't the song Chase had been practicing obnoxiously for the past week. This was different. Marcus had spent a week writing the song Chase had stolen, he'd recognize it anywhere. This wasn't that song.

"That's not my song," Marcus noted as Chase started to sing the first vocals to Smooth Criminal.

…

_.._

Earlier that evening, while Marcus was sneaking off to find something to mess with Chase, Chase was in his room. He was practicing on his guitar when he heard a knocking. "Knock, knock," came Tasha's fluttering voice.

"Come in," the boy said as he stopped playing. Tasha came in, a smile on her face. However, Chase was smart enough to know that this wasn't a conjugal visit. She only used that tone of voice when she wanted to have a word with them. The last time he heard it, Tasha was trying to run for president of the PTA.

"So, how's the rooming."

So that's what she wanted. She wanted to know if he was enjoying his new roommate. Too bad for her, her idea wasn't going so well. Chase sighed and sat down. "Oh you know. Good. Marcus and I bonded over our love of bullies and wedgies."

"Well that's good."

"I was being sarcastic," Chase deadpanned. Tasha smiled sadly before walking over to Chase. He didn't move, just gave her a cross-eyed look as she sat down next to him. He felt like a lecture was going to happen.

"Chase, look."

Yup, definitely a lecture.

"I know you and Marcus don't exactly see eye to eye."

"He tried to capture Adam, Bree, and me for his mad scientist dad," Chase deadpanned. Tasha paused. He knew he had her there. However, Tasha was as stubborn as her son.

"And I'm sure he's very, very sorry." Chase just stared at her. "Look, Chase, I know you're mad at Marcus, but are you sure it's because he tried to capture you?"

This time, Chase turned his eyes away. He stared at the guitar, finding it a lot more interesting that Tasha. He tried to play it cool, but she just kept pressing.

"Chase, I know you're upset, but I think Marcus is even more upset that you took his talent."

"What are you talking about?" he asked her. "He's fine."

"Oh really? Well how would you feel if you had the chance to make friends and someone took that away from you?"

"I'm not following."

"Chase, before you guys, Marcus didn't have any other friends," Tasha told him, trying to suede him. Chase wanted to ignore it. Marcus wasn't there friend. He was an evil, manipulative jerk who only befriended him just to get close and take away everything. "I think he really wanted to get a new start."

"Well what do you want me to do?" Chase asked, rolling his eyes. "Let Marcus go on stage instead of me? He's not the only one trying to get noticed."

"I know, Chase." She ran a hand through his hair and it actually comforting. Better than an Adam-death-hug. "I know you really want this, but you have to consider other people's feelings too. How would you like it if Leo or Adam took your spot in the talent show?"

"Kind of bad I guess," he answered slowly. "I guess I'd try to get even."

"Let's just hope it doesn't come to that. We don't want a repeat of Adam's broken arm do we?" Chase shook his head. "Chase, I'm not going to ask for you to drop out of the talent show, but could you at least be a little nicer to Marcus? Maybe not use the song he worked really hard on?"

Chase looked at Tasha, then the guitar. He sighed. "Fine. I'll play something else."

"There you go, Chase. I'm proud of you," she smiled before pulling him into a hug. He didn't understand why Tasha felt the need to be so cuddly, but it felt nice. He never had a mother. All he remembered was Adam, Bree, and Mr. Davenport. Tasha's kind, gentle touch made it almost feel worth it. "All right, so do you need me to help you pick a new song?"

"No, that's fine. I've got something." He told her as he went back to looking at his guitar, various songs going through his head. Tasha smiled and gave him a gentle peck on the head. "Ew! Tasha, you're embarrassing me!"

…

_.._

The crowd was cheering and Chase…He looked happy. Genuinely happy. He hadn't seen that look on Chase's face since…since they first time Chase played a guitar. The day they met. A strange feeling washed over Marcus. It felt like being a horrible tugging at his chest. He felt awkward now, standing there with the one thing that could ruin Chase's one moment of joy. He sighed.

"I can't do this," he sighed before walking away, tossing the device down on the prop table.

Leo looked up at Marcus, a smile gracing his face. "Marcus, I'm proud of you."

"Yeah well don't get used to it. I'm still going to dye his underwear pink."

"Can't, I already did that last week."

"Damn."

Marcus shook his head in defeat and walked away, Chase's music filling his ear. It was good. Maybe he'll give Chase an actual complement when he's done. Maybe. Marcus suddenly remembered the chip-disruptor and turned around to retrieve it. His eyes fell on the table and he paused.

"Where's the chip-disruptor?" he asked.

The music suddenly stopped and the boys heard a loud, angry grunt.

"Hey! You want to hear some real music?!"

Leo's eyes widened as he turned around. "I hope he's doing an impression, because that sounded like Spike."

"Who's Spike?" Marcus asked as he looked over Leo's head in time to see Chase smash the guitar over his head and tossed the remains over in their direction. They both let out unmanly cries as the shrapnel flew over their heads. They looked up to see Chase flexing and grunting.

"Yup, that's Spike."

* * *

Sloth: And that's how the chapter ends. The original ending had Marcus messing with Chase and inadvertedly unleashing Spike. While Spike still gets to come out and play, I decided to let both boys have their moments and not be complete jerks to each other. Now trust me, this won't be the end of Marcus vs Chase. I love writing the two of them arguing and trying to one-up each other. This just lets them be a little more human and forgiving.

If you're curious about what Marcus song was, it will be brought up later. However, with my unoriginality, it'll most likely be a song from Glee that's been edited to act like Marcus wrote it.

PS, yes, I did shamelessly put a plug in for Pokemon X and Y. I can't wait to play it!

Anyways, until next week. This time, at it's regular reading time of Wednesdays xD


	9. Dark Side

Sloth: Weee! School is fun! -softly- no it's not, for the love of god save me now!

ahem, anywho, this chapter turned out to be a little funnier than expected. I didn't have time to flush it out because of school, so the fight scenes are kind of short. But they are enjoyable. I also tried really hard not to stick to the lines used in the show, but some of them were just too good to give up. I mean, they just made sense to use in these contents.

This chapter also introduced the plot. It seems rushed, but it's there. I hope the hints I've been dropping were noticeable. I also hope I did Spike right. I love the guy and I like fics with him. Who knows, I might make another that involves Spike. Anywho

Disclaimer: I don't own Lab Rats, go away -hides in corner and cuddles with plushies-

* * *

**Dark Side  
**

Marcus wasn't normally a coward. He's faced giant robots, attack dogs, and on one occasion he even fought government agents. He usually stood strong, confident, and really wasn't scared of anything.

That is until he was standing in front of Spike. Even if Spike was just a very angry, aggressive, and snarling Chase, there was something about him. Standing in front of Spike was like staring into the teeth of a very hungry Megaladon that had been crossbred with a bull. Maybe it was because he didn't have his bionics. Maybe Spike had some sort of bionic field that caused his victims to be intimidated no matter how powerful they were. Or maybe it was because it was technically Chase and this was a side of the nerd no one expected.

It also didn't help that Leo was using Marcus as a human shield.

"H-hey Chase," Marcus greeted as he leaned back away from the snarling face that was Chase. Or Spike. Or whatever this was.

"The name is Spike, Maggot," the little destructive commando grunted right into Marcus's face.

"Ok, ok. N-nice to meet you, Spike," the raven haired boy nodded quickly. He suddenly realized why Leo was using him as a human shield. Talking to this guy was like walking around in a minefield. He tried to back up, but Leo pushed against him. "Leo! Uh so, Spike, now that you broke the guitar h-how about you sit down and –"

"I don't want to sit down! I want to break some knee caps and use them as hockey bucks!"

Marcus let out a small cry and managed to yank Leo off his back and use the small teen as a human shield. Screw being nice, he didn't want to have his knee caps ripped out and used as hockey bucks. Fortunately using Leo as a shield seemed to be like a good idea, because as soon as Spike saw Leo, something must have triggered inside. The commando blinked. His posture relaxed, muscles loosening. The snarl vanished from Spike's face and was replaced with a look of confusion and fear.

"Leo? Marcus? What just happened?" His voice no longer sounded like he had been gargling gravel, so it was safe to assume that this was indeed Chase and not Spike.

"Yeah, funny story," Leo started. He pointed behind him and quickly spat out, "Marcus did it."

"What?!" Marcus turned on Leo, glaring hard enough to unleash heat-beams. Well, if he had them at least. He was so going to delete Leo's saved data on Call of Duty when they get home. Before he could turn on the boy, Chase rounded on him.

"Marcus, what did you do?" Chase asked him.

"I didn't do it," he said. "Well at least not intentionally." At Chase's look, Marcus sighed and decided elaborate. "I might have…barrowed Davenport's chip-disruptor-"

"You did what?!" Chase shouted. "Marcus, that device is only supposed to be used if Adam, Bree, or I uncontrollably glitch. It's supposed to prevent us from going out of control, it's not a toy."

A frown formed on his face. He didn't like how Chase was speaking to him as if he was a child. He quickly shot back with "Well if you hadn't been such an annoying little creep and stole my spot-"

"This is what's this was about?" Chase asked furious. "You embarrassed me in front of everyone! It's just like you to ruin everything!"

"Me? You're the one who has to have everything your way," Marcus countered, poking Chase in the chest.

"Don't poke me," Chase demanded. He didn't bother to fight back, like the little goodie-goodie that he was. That didn't stop Marcus from ripping into Chase.

"Oh yeah? What you going to do? Go run to Davenport and cry, _Chip_?" Marcus asked rhetorically before poking Chase again. And again. He continued to rip into Chase, adding a poke at the end of each insult. "Oh, look at me, I'm Chip Davenport." Poke. "I suck my thumb when I sleep." Poke. "I cry to my _Daddy_ every time someone makes fun of me." Poke. "I'm an open target." Poke. "I can't – "

Marcus hacked as Chase's arm gripped tightly around his collar. Marcus soon found himself two inches away from Chase's snarling face. "I can't breathe."

"What did I say about poking me, Pretty Boy?" Spike snarled.

"Oh hey, Spike's back." Marcus chuckled weakly. "Leo. Help."

Leo begrudgingly agreed, taking cautious steps towards Spike. "Uh, hey Spike, how's about you let Marcus down and –"

Spike grabbed Leo by his collar and effortlessly tossed the shorter boy aside. It was very fortunate that Leo landed on the cheerleading squad. Well, maybe it was fortunate. The cheerleaders didn't look too pleased. It also dawned on Marcus that if Spike was willing to throw Leo, then Chase was probably not going to show up any time soon. He chuckled nervously.

"Any lasts words before I snap off your arm and beat you with it?" Spike asked slowly, grinding his teeth as he glared.

Marcus needed to think. He could beat Spike. He was strong. He could easily blow up…'_oh right. No bionics. Ok, time to get clever.'_

"Hey look! It's Selena Gomez!"

Spike turned and Marcus ripped his shirt out of Spike's grip and took off like the devil himself was after him. When he heard the pounding of feet, he realized that he might have preferred the devil.

….

…

..

Bree smiled at Owen's face. The look had just been what she was hoping for.

"It's beautiful," he said as he looked at the popcorn bust of Principal Perry. "Her eyes are so deep."

"They're cookies," Adam commented before plucking Popcorn Perry's left eye and munching on the Oreo.

Regardless of the odd moment that was Adam eating Perry's eye, Bree smiled at Owen. He turned to her, returning the smile and pulling her into a hug. She breathed in his scent. He smelled like plaster and butter, but she didn't care. Nothing could stop her from enjoying this.

"HELP!"

"GET BACK HERE, PRETTY BOY!"

Well, maybe that.

Bree pulled away from Owen just in time to see Marcus running through the halls with Chase running after him, snarling and barking. Not a second after, Leo stumbled out from the gym. He gave them a nervous smile.

"Hey, guys. Did you know Spike's back?" Marcus came pounding down from the opposite direction, making a left into the gym with Chase not that far behind. "Because Spike's back."

"Who's Spike?" Owen asked.

"Uh…he's Chase's split personality," Bree quickly blurted. It was a horrible excuse, but it was better than nothing. She looked at Adam briefly and that was all they needed before they took off.

They ran after Spike, who was running after Marcus, who was running for his life. To Owen, it looked like one of those comedic montages in which the characters would run from one side of the screen to the other while doing something funny. Marcus would run by screaming as Chase (or Spike, Owen still wasn't sure) would run after him while wielding a chair as a weapon, and Bree and Adam were running to catch him. Then Adam, Bree, and Marcus would go running by as Chase/Spike chased them with a samurai sword. Then there was this odd one where all three of them were chasing Chase up until the shorter boy got his hands on a chainsaw from god only knows where.

"Does this happen often?" Owen asked Leo. Leo nodded.

"What's going on here?" Principal Perry asked as she walked out from the gym. "Oh, I smell butter. Who made this?" she asked as she walked over to Owen and Leo. Upon seeing her, Owen stood before the butter bust.

"I did!"

"I love it! We have a winner!"

"No!"

At that moment, Bree and Adam stumbled forward, panting. Leo frowned. "Where's Marcus?"

Adam simple stuck out his arms as Marcus was thrown from across the hall. Sadly, Adam missed catching Marcus by a good foot and the raven haired boy slammed painfully into the ground. Too tired to care, Adam just pointed to the boy. "There he is."

"I can't feel my spleen…" Marcus whined weakly.

"What happened to him?" Perry asked. "He looked worse than I did after I went through a round with El Torro Fuelte back when I was a female Mexican Wrestler."

"Why does that not surprise me?" Bree whispered to Owen.

A roar suddenly drew their attention. Their heads whipped to the direction where Spike was ripping a Styrofoam cup out of his mouth. With a psychotic battle cry, the commando charged, swinging his arms like they were motors. Marcus, upon seeing the upcoming attack, let out a cry and Adam was barely able to pull Marcus out of the way. Spike barreled forward and completely destroyed Popcorn Perry.

"No!" the stocky principal cried in agony. "How dare you destroy the Mona Lisa that was my popcorn bust?!"

"What are you going to do about it, Pants-suit?"

What happened next was one of the oddest things Marcus has ever seen. Spike and Perry traded insults, each one getting less and less school appropriate. When Spike insulted Perry's cats, that's when things really got weird. Perry pulled out a Luchadore mask and put it down before engaging Spike in an all-out wrestling match. That she was winning.

They grappled, tossing each other in a wrestling dance. She slammed him against the vending machines before he flipped her off him. She managed to grab him before slamming him down with the full force of her body.

While Spike was getting his butt handed to by a squat, stocky principal, the others had recovered well enough to start eating Butter Perry's leftovers. They were munching away, all surprised that Perry was able to handle Spike on her own. It made Marcus wonder something. Spike was technically bionic and Perry wasn't. She was able to handle Spike like he was just another student despite his enhanced strength. Maybe bionics didn't make you as invincible as he had thought.

This only proved to be truer as Spike was slammed into the ground before Perry body-slammed onto him over and over and over until Chase finally came through and took another three slams.

"Why am I being body slammed by a female Mexican wrestler in a pants-suit?!" he gasped as Perry slammed into him again. And again. And again.

Chase looked like he needed some help. However, Marcus couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh hey, here comes my favorite part," he chuckled.

"Agh!" Chase cried out.

"Please tell me someone is videotaping this," he laughed while clapping in delight. This was so worth getting chased around by a psychopath.

Sadly, all good things had to come to an end. That end being a deep voice clearing their throat. The teens turning around to see Davenport and Tasha standing behind them, looking not too pleased.

"Mommy."

….

…

..

Despite the ruckus brought on by Chase, the party was still on. Kids were mingling about, chatting happily with one another, drinking various amounts of a soda, ect. ect. Bree and Owen were sitting on a couch enjoying a nice conversation. Adam was showing Leo how to throw a basketball from across the lawn. Yes, it was all fun and games.

Well for everyone except Marcus.

"This is so unfair!" Marcus whined as he walked into the house, Davenport, Tasha and Chase following behind him. Chase had an ice pack on his head. Perry had given him quite a thrashing. Either she was secretly bionic or all her talk about being a marine slash prison warden slash Mexican wrestler slash body guard was all true. Either way, Chase was so out of it after his thrashing that he didn't even have the strength to talk. Oddly enough he had the strength to tell Davenport that it all had been Chase's fault.

The worst part, Marcus was forced to go home with Davenport, Tasha and Chase instead of being dropped off at the party with Leo, Bree, and Adam. It was so unfair. Why did he have to get punished just because Chase went completely loony and tried to shove jocks into their locker?

"We'll just be upstairs," Tasha said awkwardly as she saw the look on Marcus's face. She gently led Chase upstairs. The kid's brain was so scrambled he was having Adam moments, asking Tasha why there were birds still spinning around his head.

"Marcus, you know why," Davenport started. Marcus rolled his eyes. "What you did wasn't just reckless, it was really dangerous."

"Oh come on, how was I supposed to know that Chase had a psychopath living inside his head?" he argued.

"Marcus, even if you didn't know about Spike, you shouldn't have tried to mess with his chip," Davenport told him. He could tell that the man was trying to be sympathetic, but how could he feel anything if the man was treating him like a child.

"Yeah, well he shouldn't have taken away my chance at the talent show," he countered.

"Marcus, that's not exactly a legitimate reason to do what you did to Chase," Davenport quickly shot down. "It makes you appear petty and irresponsible."

Marcus crossed his arms and turned his face away from Davenport, not really wanting to be part of this conversation anymore. He didn't need to be told he was being irresponsible. He didn't even think he really was irresponsible. He was perfectly in the right for revenge.

"I wasn't being irresponsible," he shot back.

"Marcus, you stole my chip-disruptor and lost it. Who knows who could have it!"

"It wasn't my fault!"

"Well you shouldn't have taken it in the first place, Marcus," Davenport scolded. The biting tone caused Marcus to wince, but he still tried to remain strong and kept his wits about him.

"I was just trying to get even."

"It still doesn't matter, Marcus," Davenport said. "It was wrong. Even if it wasn't you who used it, the chip-disruptor could have done some serious damage. It's designed only for emergencies, not to get revenge on Chase."

"But-"

"But nothing, Marcus," Davenport interrupted, silencing the teen so fast that Marcus visibly flinched this time. He couldn't remember the last time someone had yelled at him. But the tone. The tone felt familiar. It felt like an invisible itch he couldn't scratch. He couldn't shake the feeling, even as Davenport lowered his tone. "This isn't a game Marcus. Who knows who has the disruptor. It could be a civilian, it could be government agents, it could be Henderson, and it could be anybody."

Henderson. That name. It started something in his head. He blacked out, the world around him fading away like an old-timey movie. He wasn't in the living room anymore. He found himself elsewhere. It was a lab with the distinct smell of slaughtered meat. Before he could take in the sight, he felt a cold hard smack against his cheek. He lost his footing and hit the ground.

"_What did I tell you?!"_

"_I-I was just curious," he stammered. _

"_How can you be so irresponsible?!"_

"_I-I wasn't. I just wanted to-"_

"_Marcus!" _

_He flinched. He was bionic, but _HE _still had power over him. Instincts kicked in and his hands flew up protectively. However, instead of feeling the callus palm of his assailant, he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. He lowered his guard, bringing his hands down. He looked into the man's eyes. The burning fury that had been in them was replaced by a gentle smile and faux kindness. _

"_Marcus. You don't need them anymore," the man told him. "I took you in after they abandoned you. I'm your Father now."_

_He nodded. He knew it was true. He was an orphan. His parents had left him alone. Still, he wanted to know them. He wanted to know why they left him. He was just curious. But he knew he couldn't anymore. He had to focus on his mission now. _

"_Y-yes, Mr. Henderson."_

"_Oh come on buddy, you don't have to call me that." The man told him gently, patting him hard on the back. "You can call me Dad."_

"_Y-yes, Dad," he reluctantly complied. _

And just like that, he was back. He was looking up at Davenport, who had a hand on his shoulder and concern gracing his aging features. Marcus looked at the man's hand and then back at Davenport.

"Marcus? Are you ok? You blacked out on me."

"Y-yeah." Marcus answered uncertainly, an afterthought just nudging at the forefront of his mind. Davenport gave him a look, but nodded. The man opened his mouth, but before he could continue his lecture, and for reasons unknown to Marcus himself, the teen blurted, "Mr. Davenport? Who's Mr. Henderson?"

The man blinked, caught off guard. He knew that expression. Marcus frowned as Davenport waved off the question.

"I'm not sure who you're talking about Marcus. You know what, why don't you head up to your room, Marcus? It's been a long day."

It was a lie. He could tell. He frowned as he was ushered upstairs. Something was being kept from him. He walked into his room, closing the door behind him. Chase was already passed out on his bed, ice water on the night stand. The boy was snoring softly, twitching slightly.

He didn't bother yelling at Chase. For now, his anger was replaced with curiosity. Who was Henderson? Was the image he saw real? He remembered a conversation he had earlier in the week. He remembered thoughts of a mother and father.

The world shifted, becoming fuzzy, but he was still there. He only heard voices.

"_He's so cute."_

"_Who's my guy? Who's my guy?"_

"_That's my boy!"_

"_Marcus, sweetie, Mommy loves you."_

He blinked the voices away, covering his ears.

Davenport wasn't going to give him answers, not while he was still being monitored in case he exploded.

That wouldn't stop him from finding answers though.

...

...

..

* * *

Sloth: Boom, there it is. And this will not be the last we see of Spike. How can I just let the little psychopath go? I mean, honestly, it's a good plot device and it's sad he doesn't show up more. But as this will mainly focus on Marcus trying to find his past, Spike will be around for comedic relief.

And be aware of more meltdowns now that Marcus's mental block just broke.

-evil laugh-


	10. Had Me At Hello

Sloth: Hey guys, sorry about the long wait. I had a lot of stuff going on. Sick, school, Dragoncon, ect. It took me a while to get this chapter done. But now I'm finished with it. So I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Not much to tell.

However, I will say this, there will not be another update for a while. The reason for this is that I'm going to write the remaining chapters of the story so the weekly updates can continue without interrruptions. I'd say I would have like 5 or so more chapters left in this story. I don't really tend to go further than 15 chapters in my stories if you've noticed. I'm also going to use the time to finish writing my other fanfictions and well as start a new fanfiction project for Percy Jackson and the Olympians, so if you're a fan of that series like I am, look forward to that.

Also, yay, Disney DX is bringing back Xoilin Showdown! Or Xoilin Chronicles in this case, but this, it was my favorite cartoon and I'm excited for this reboot.

anyways, I don't own Lab Rats, just go read the story.

* * *

**You Had Me At Hello  
**

Rather than looking into the eyes of a woman, he saw a dark shadow. All that he could make out were thin lips pressed into a bright smile. Long, curling blond hair draped down her back, lock falling down her shoulder and hanging just within reach of his fingers. He could hear humming. It was coming from her. He felt strong, let delicately soft arms wrap around him. He felt like he was on a hammock, rocking slowly with a bump here and there.

His eyes looked around, taking her in. Her pink blouse was contrasting against the baby blue walls. He reached forward, fingers wrapping around the silver chain hanging around her neck. She giggled and gently tugged at his fingers, prying them off.

"Aw, Sweetiekins likes mommy's necklace? Yes he does, doesn't he?" she giggled at him. He giggled back, hands clapping in delight at the baby talk. He didn't know why he found it delightful, but the way she spoke just made him laugh.

A knock at the door and his mother looked at Not-Mom. Not-Mom was a tall man with a spikey head of hair. He looked really, really big. Like if he threw his blocks at the man, the toy would bounce off. Not that he hadn't tried before mind you.

Mom and Not-Mom were talking in their big people voices. He couldn't understand them, so he went back to playing with his mother's hair.

And then suddenly he was moving. He was in Not-Mom's arms and then everything was moving too fast. Way too fast. He couldn't keep up. He couldn't-

Marcus woke to the sound of laughter and a sudden wetness. He hoped the god it wasn't what it was. Looking up, he saw Chase was smirking at him, a bucket in his hands. From the dripping rim, he knew that the wetness had come from the other teen.

"Gee, thanks," Marcus glared.

"You're welcome, Roomie," he replied with a smug look. Marcus glared intensely at Chase as a thought struck him.

….

…

..

Bree was enjoying a nice, ripe fruit salad when she hear a loud bang, followed by a girlish cry. She looked up in confusion, eyes darting towards the stairs. Stumbling down was Chase, a bucket on his head. He was soon followed by Marcus, who was dripping wet and looked like an piranha ready chomp on Chase's head.

"What happened to you two?" she asked them.

"Don't ask," the boys replied simultaneously as they took a seat at the counter. Well, Marcus took a seat while Chase grabbed at the counter and missed his seat by a mile.

"Hey cool, I didn't know we were having a costume party," Adam smiled as he saw Chase as the giant teen walked into the room with Leo in toe.

"I'm not wearing a costume," Chase sneered. "_Marcus_ put the bucket on my head and it's stuck."

"Hey, you were the one who thought it would be funny to wake me up with a bucket of water," Marcus sneered back before ringing out his sleeve into the cup Leo was about to poor milk into.

"Oh boy. Pajama water. Just what I wanted to drink," Leo frowned before walking to the sink to toss it out.

"Are you two seriously still mad at each other?" Bree asked the boys. "It's been two weeks. Get over it."

"No way," the said simultaneously.

"And they say girls can hold grudges," Bree rolled her eyes before returning to breakfast.

"Hey, look what I can do," Adam smiled. He got behind Chase and started to pound on the metal bucket, pounding a rhythmic tune that vaguely sounded like "22" by Taylor Swift. He ended the impromptu drum solo by banging on the side of the drums. Poor little Chase and his super-senses was unable to take the assault and fell on his chair. Adam looked down at his little brother. "Oops. Sorry, Chasey."

Adam carefully held up Chase and removed the bucket off of Chase's head. The brunette was out cold and Adam picked him up, fireman style, and carried Chase back upstairs to bed. Marcus looked back with a raised eyebrow, finding humor in the family dynamic.

Bree was like the older, reclusive sister, acting as if she didn't care about the boys, but always found time to look out for them. Just last week, Leo had caught a cold. She spent the day with Tasha taking care of Leo, getting a wash cloth when Leo needed it, taking his temperature, all that stuff. But as soon as Leo was back on his feet, she was back on her cell phone, talking with her friends.

Adam was the oldest, but acted more like the baby. But that didn't mean he didn't know when to act like an older brother. Especially with Chase. At first, Marcus didn't understand why Adam always hung around Chase at school. He assumed it was because Adam need a little guidance, if you know what he meant. But it had been by sheer accident that Marcus discovered the real reason. He had been turning the corner at school when he saw Adam and Chase at their locker. Chase had been ranting and raving, head in his locker oblivious to some jocks who were walking by and sticking a "Kick-Me" sign to his back. Adam discreetly reached over and plucked the sign off his brother's back and carefully stuck it on the jock's back as they walked away.

He noticed that a lot now. Adam would discreetly catch or swat paper balls that were thrown at Chase's head. He would glare at anyone who made a snide comment at Chase that the brainiac didn't understand. And of course, whenever Adam would accidentally knock Chase out, which was surprisingly a lot, he'd take Chase upstairs and put him to bed.

Then there was little Leo. Honestly he still didn't know what to make of Leo. The kid was a little genius, true. But he was still the baby. Of course this wasn't a baby that you'd coddle and coo at. No, Leo was the kid you'd have to teach lessons to. Most of their misadventures were because of Leo accidentally doing something. Like just the other day, Leo curiously took down a fire wall and suddenly Eddie was possessed by a computer virus called Teddy. The virus said something about revenge and making kidney wallets, but Marcus wasn't really listening. He was kind of being buried alive in Chase's recently installed capsule.

Or it was until Adam broke it to rescue Marcus from all those high in fiber pellets.

And then there was itty-bitty-cry-baby Chase. Sometimes Marcus felt sorry for the kid. He was being bullied and he didn't even know it. He would see Chase walk down the halls and kids would say things like "Brainiac" or "Nice hair-cut, Frodo" and Chase being Chase, would assume they were complements. He sometimes wondered if Chase being Davenport's favorite (it was common knowledge by now) had made Chase a bit naïve in some way. He'd feel sorry for Chase if it wasn't for the fact that Chase was being a constant dick to him.

Sure, he technically did try to capture Adam, Bree, and Chase, but that was over. Everyone forgave him, even Leo. And Marcus had done some pretty crappy things to Leo. He assumed Chase was still angry about him accidentally letting out Spike during the Talent Show, but that was Chase's fault. Still, that was two weeks ago. It was already spring break and Marcus and Chase have been doing nothing but trying to one-up the other.

His wake-up call had only been just a retaliation to Marcus putting glue in Chase's hair gel. Of course, he only did that because Chase had put honey in his shampoo. Granted that was retaliation for Marcus sticking pornographic pictures inside all of Chase's favorite books and scarring the kid's virgin eyes. But Marcus only did that because Chase made all of his underwear pink and had Adam pants him in school.

So yeah, their relationship wasn't all that great. Marcus was already planning his retaliation. It involved a lot of honey and bath salt.

Marcus was suddenly pulled from his thoughts when Davenport and Tasha came down for breakfast. While he smiled on Tasha, he had to force the smile to remain on his face as he looked over at Davenport. He still resented the man for keeping secrets. Secrets that Marcus had been privately searching.

In the two months that Marcus started living with the Davenports, he had finally gained enough trust from them to be left alone. He managed no to do anything not to break that trust. Well, up until his memory glitch. It was an accident he was sure, but the argument he had with Davenport had somehow broken the memory lock on him, flooding him with nightmares of people he didn't know.

The dreams were always about the same two people. There would be a blond woman who would also speak gently to him and sing to him. There were was a man who would carry him, boasting about all the things they could do together, like sports and karate.

Those dreams were pleasant. They were sweet and gentle. But then there were nightmares where HE'D show up. The man with the twisted smile and the psycho smile and bad haircut. Henderson. Those dreams were always full of tortures, being forced to do things he didn't want. He could feel every prod and poke, every needle injection, everything. He still shutter from the memories.

With the memories flooding him, he wanted answers. He wanted to know who these people were and he knew Davenport had the answers. So, whenever he was left alone, he'd go down to the lab and start hunting for information.

So far he discovered that Henderson was a mad scientist that used to work for Davenport and his brother Douglas Davenport. He was fired by both men. A month later, Douglas Davenport and his wife went missing. They were never found. They files seemed to have been erased from all of Davenport's databases. The only picture evidence of Douglas Davenport though was a picture of the Davenport Brothers opening Davenport Industries. He had to say, Douglas had just a bad of a haircut as Henderson. And the goatee made him look like a cheesy Disney villain.

"Marcus? Marcus!"

Marcus snapped out of his thoughts, looking up at Davenport. "Hmm? You say something?"

"Yes, we were just reminding you guys that Tasha and I will be going away this weekend," he said. "Tasha's idea."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Tasha gave him an amused look.

"Anyways, we just wanted to remind you guys to behave."

Marcus frowned. "Since when don't I behave?"

Davenport gave him a look and Marcus just rolled his eyes. He was never going to live the whole unleashing Spike thing down. Who knew losing a thousand dollar piece of machinery would be the thing Davenport would hold over his head? At least he was kind enough not to mention it at every chance he got, like someone Marcus knew.

"We'll be leaving tonight," Tasha told the kids as she took a second to fuss over Leo, mentioning something about a haircut.

"We'll be fine, Tasha. You guys leave me home alone all the time."

"Oh, we trust you, Bree, and Chase," Tasha said as she placed a stack of pancakes onto a plate in front of Marcus. "It's Adam and Leo we don't trust alone."

"Hey," both accused boys chorused.

"I'm sorry, boys, but the last time we left you guys to do something on your own, Adam bought a monster truck and Leo was sucked into another dimension," she reminded them before placing extra pancakes onto both of their plates as a means of apology.

"So we're glorified babysitters?" Bree asked, a little insulted at the proclamation.

"Of course not, Princess," Davenport told her with a smile. "You're glorified guards in charge of two of the most destructive teenagers in history." Then a thought hit the scientist and he looked around. "Where's Chase?"

All four teens looked at their respective plate of pancakes and started to dig in, thanking Tasha's need to feed the kids.

….

…

..

Marcus was in his room reading a book he had picked up from the library. It was some children's fantasy book about a boy whose father was the Greek god Poseidon. He felt like he could sort of relate to the kid. Both had a father they didn't know about and their step-fathers weren't the greatest men in the world. If only there was a summer camp for super bionic teenagers, then he'd feel like home. Honestly he only picked it up because Jack said it was a good read.

Tasha and Davenport had left an hour ago. The Lab Rats had all gone down to the lab to mess around. So much for trust. Maybe it was the fact that he was just used to being home alone that he knew how to behave. Maybe he left like being nice to Bree and not be one of the little kids she had to take care of. According to Davenport, if everything remained intact, Bree would be able to prove she was responsible enough for a car. Not that she needed it since she could travel anywhere she wanted, but he assumed it was because of the whole "being a normal teenager" phase she was going through.

Anyways, as he was reading, he felt something in the air. It kind of felt like an electrical shock going through his body. Only instead of paralyzing pain, it tickled and he giggled. Then he blinked and looked around. It wasn't a manly sound and he prayed Chase wasn't around to hear it. Regardless, he got back to his book when he suddenly giggled out of the blue. Then he felt a jolt and busted out laughing.

"W-whahha. Wha-hahat's g-goingahaha on?" he wondered through his giggling fit. He coughed, trying to steel his emotions. This wasn't like him. He could control his emotions.

He started to panic. He couldn't stop laughing. It was getting hard to breathe. He fell to his knees, clutching his stomach. The laughter was started to get cut up now between moments of laughter and gasps of breath. He had watched _A Thousand Ways to Die. _He knew that you could die from laughter due to the lack of oxygen you'd take in since you expel air while laughing. It wasn't a gruesome death, but it sure was hell wasn't a fun way either. It was like dying from suffocation.

"H-heehehlp," he gasped. The laughter had died now. But the oxygen wasn't coming in. He could feel his lungs locking. Oh god. This was a glitch. He was glitching and now he couldn't breathe. "H-alp." He gasped.

He fell to the floor, laying there. He couldn't breathe. His vision was getting blurry. Occasionally his vision would turn gray, like static on a TV. Or was is blurry because he was crying. He was crying because he was scared. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die.

He closed his eyes as the air refused to get in his lungs, his chest feeling like it was about to explode.

Instead, the door to his room exploded as Adam and Leo rushed in.

"Marcus, no oh!"

"He's not breathing!"

"Up him pick, up him pick!"

"I'm trying!"

"Marcus, up wake! Marcus, up wake!"

"You're not helping!"

….

…

..

She was back, her golden hair in his face. She was smiling at him, rocking him. She was singing. Singing a sweet, gentle song.

"_You don't have to try too hard_," she sung gently, "_you already have my heart. You don't have a thing to prove. I'm already into you. You had me at hello_."

The melody was lulling him to sleep. He yawned, rubbing his eyes. He liked it when Mommy sang to him.

"_Ooooh ooooh ooh ooh. You don't have to try too hard. You already have my heart. You don't have a thing to prove. I'm already into you."_

There was a knock and she stopped. She looked down at him and smiled. "Daddy's home." She smiled. They were moving. He saw the color of their ways. The blinding yellow that made him cringe. He fussed in his mother's arms until she stopped moving. He looked up to see the door. It opened and he smiled at the man on the other side. Not-Mom was here. He clapped at the sight of the man's funny hair-cut and bad-guy goatee. But even if he looked mean, his bright smile showed how much he loved his family.

"Hey, there's daddy's little man." Not-Mom took him in his arms and he giggled, pressing his face against Not-Mom's fuzzy face. The hairs tickled and he giggled harder, cooing in delight. "Somebody missed Daddy, didn't he? I'm sorry, but Uncle Donny and I had to fire a bad man today. Don't worry, buddy, Mommy and Daddy are going to be here for a long time now."

Those words rung in his ears. They weren't true. Not anymore.

With a gasp, Marcus awoke. He shot forward, his head slamming against Plexiglas and a curse ripping out of his mouth.

"Oooh, Marcus said a swear."

That was Adam. Blinking, Marcus looked up to see that he was inside a capsule. Chase's capsule from the looks of it. Adam, Bree, Chase, and Leo were standing in front of him, looking concerned. He blinked a few times and pushed the door open, walking out.

"What happened?" he asked as he rubbed his head.

"Well," Leo started. "You see, we were messing around…"

"We?" Chase interrupted. "You're the one who turned on the LEMP."

"Is that even a word?" Marcus asked as he rubbed his chest. "God. It felt like I couldn't breathe."

"That might be because of the LEMP," Chase offered. "It's a giant glitch machine. I only saw in pixels, Adam spoke backwards, Bree couldn't stop moving, and from what I analyzed, your inhibitor shocked your lungs and they started to shut down."

"Gee, great," Marcus frowned. "I always get stuck with the worst case scenarios." He wasn't exactly going to tell them his glitch involved uncontrollable laughing. That would be too embarrassing.

"Could be worse," Bree started. "We managed to get to you in time after Chase suggested we check on you."

Marcus raised an eyebrow and looked over at Chase. The short boy just huffed and looked away. "I was glitching. I wasn't in my right state of mind."

Marcus nodded. He didn't want to concern himself with Chase. He had another problem. His memory…it couldn't be true could it. He saw the face clearly now. The man's face had been as bright as day. He saw it on Davenport's desk every time he snuck down to the lap. But it couldn't be true.

His father couldn't be Douglas Davenport.

….right?

* * *

Sloth: Ok, so Douglas is in this story, but he will NOT be portrayed like he was in the show. He was a good guy, and as revealed, he was Marcus's biological father. So he is Davenport's nephew and Adam, Bree, and Chase's cousin. What can I say? I like family stories. Honestly I'm curious if you guys saw this coming or not. Plus this dies in with the Lab Rat's "Evil Uncle Daddy" coming back to the show. But not the evil baby of the family -tears-

So see you guys in October!


End file.
